Slavoj Zizek - What Is Surplus Enjoyment?

The psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan had some unique and insightful ideas. In this video, Zizek describes one of Lacan's best insights- that enjoyment is not only the straightforward experience of excitement or contentment. Rather, there is also the experience of enjoyment which comes from our relationship with others, which takes on some unusual forms. Lacan gets the term "surplus enjoyment" as an analogy with surplus revenue in a business- the revenue required to cover the costs of the business is not seen as good enough, even if it is for all practical purposes. Rather, there must also be the surplus revenue (profit) to increase the business' power to affect the outside world and impose itself upon it.

Пікірлер: 55

  • @jameshicks7125
    @jameshicks7125 Жыл бұрын

    Another simple way of looking at surplus enjoyment is akin to the dopamine response in social media. The enjoyment doesn't come from the meme, or the video itself, but in the *anticipation of finding the great meme or video.

  • @Chrisjavier2604

    @Chrisjavier2604

    3 ай бұрын

    Chase is sweeter than the hunt

  • @eduardo5351

    @eduardo5351

    14 күн бұрын

    wow, perfect example!

  • @brendanramsey8311
    @brendanramsey83112 жыл бұрын

    The people who leave a full shopping cart and don’t purchase anything do so because they realized they were unable to get away with stealing it. People would walk out with filled shopping carts all the time when I worked at walmart years ago. It’s even more of a complex event when the theft is considered.

  • @SashkoBljad
    @SashkoBljad6 жыл бұрын

    I accidentaly read "surplus employment"

  • @spotlightofficial788

    @spotlightofficial788

    6 жыл бұрын

    Thanks for a good chuckle :)

  • @picaweltschmerz6357
    @picaweltschmerz63575 жыл бұрын

    I love the man's books, but his speaking style drives me insane. Not the little idiosyncrasies of the Zizek form, like the rubbing his nose or the Slovenian lisp, but just how profoundly and frustratingly long-winded he can be, preferring to tell 5 tangentially related stories than to satisfactorily assess and answer the problem at hand.

  • @picaweltschmerz6357

    @picaweltschmerz6357

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@ottomakers bravo

  • @caspar_gomez

    @caspar_gomez

    3 жыл бұрын

    my god, I love it

  • @dopamineater8427

    @dopamineater8427

    2 жыл бұрын

    @@ottomakers the madlad did it

  • @pharder1234

    @pharder1234

    Жыл бұрын

    You obviously haven't read hin then, he writes like Marx with ADHD

  • @sanjinv

    @sanjinv

    Жыл бұрын

    @@ottomakers man is it true that a few years ago in Slovenia there was a Žižek sound-alike contest and Slavoj participated also and came third...?

  • @RahulSam
    @RahulSam Жыл бұрын

    Does anyone have the link to the full lecture? Thanks!

  • @farrider3339
    @farrider33393 жыл бұрын

    Hedonism is all that there is . . Even a drug addicted junkie is interested in this as well a high frequency trade junkie . . Its all about hormonal "pleasure" reaction of the organism We're all the same °°°

  • @djobokuwali4316
    @djobokuwali43166 жыл бұрын

    Bro you post the best shit

  • @amerzaffar01
    @amerzaffar01 Жыл бұрын

    Zizek the most dangerous man alive 🤣

  • @Purwapada
    @Purwapada Жыл бұрын

    slurpless enjoyment

  • @blerocs
    @blerocs6 жыл бұрын

    I am sure there is a more reasonable interpretation of that quote from St. Thomas. Zizek interprets everything through his glasses to justify his point.

  • @benthebenevolent1001

    @benthebenevolent1001

    6 жыл бұрын

    blerocs There might well be. Clearly this isn't his best.

  • @blerocs

    @blerocs

    6 жыл бұрын

    If we take for example Dante in Inferno he feels compassion and not a pervert satisfaction when he sees those suffering. Also, reading stories of the temptations of saints, but even looking at our own temptations in everyday life, one can and must be fully aware of the dangers and consequences of immoral behaviour also when one is not yielding to it. Those in heaven MUST know what hell looks like. Christ also descended in the Inferno after good Friday!

  • @OH-pc5jx

    @OH-pc5jx

    4 жыл бұрын

    @@blerocs I'm confused: does knowledge of hell cause us compassion - in which case we suffer even in heaven - or does it bring us pleasure?

  • @blerocs

    @blerocs

    4 жыл бұрын

    @@OH-pc5jx do you imagine heaven and hell as outside of your soul, as unknown entities? If not, we can relate these questions to everyday experiences, can't we?

  • @Hyuzuka

    @Hyuzuka

    2 жыл бұрын

    But isn't Heaven supposed to be the ultimate bliss? One of the things I hate the most about living on Earth is not only how much suffering I have to endure, but also how much suffering there is around me, and how impotent I am to do something about it. So, in Heaven, I'll just have to be fully aware not only of the injustices and sufferings of Earth, but also of this new super eternal suffering taking place in Hell, and I ALSO won't be able to do anything about it, either? Seeing people suffer and having no power to help them is honestly a type of torture itself, so how can that experience be aligned to the experience of Heaven?

  • @weebgrinder
    @weebgrinder Жыл бұрын

    I'd love to read a surplus enjoyment based critique of capitalism

  • @punchgod

    @punchgod

    Жыл бұрын

    Zizek is always drawing a parallel between surplus value and surplus enjoyment. He first posits it in sublime object of ideology.

  • @weebgrinder

    @weebgrinder

    Жыл бұрын

    @@punchgod Okay, thanks. Will definitely read at least his first two books.

  • @pharder1234

    @pharder1234

    Жыл бұрын

    Fabio vighi has a good critue of Marx's analysis of capital with a focus on surplus value actually being surplus enjoyment. It's really good, you can find it on Todd mcgowan's channel

  • @weebgrinder

    @weebgrinder

    Жыл бұрын

    @@pharder1234 found it thanks !

  • @pobblebonk3

    @pobblebonk3

    Жыл бұрын

    Todd McGowan’s Capitalism and Desire

  • @ndkiwikid
    @ndkiwikid6 жыл бұрын

    Source, please?

  • @benthebenevolent1001

    @benthebenevolent1001

    6 жыл бұрын

    The complete interview is here: kzread.info/dash/bejne/fWxl2tKxia_Jo7Q.html

  • @ndkiwikid

    @ndkiwikid

    6 жыл бұрын

    Tuigen Heim Thanks!

  • @benthebenevolent1001

    @benthebenevolent1001

    6 жыл бұрын

    Aladdin Sane Welcome.

  • @coreycox2345
    @coreycox23456 жыл бұрын

    This did not resonate with me as he often does. I think that people who enjoy shopping to excess are in a hell if they buy anything or not. Shopping without buying anything is a form of shopping to excess. I don't see why they would want to do this? Also, I don't enjoy the idea of other people suffering. I became a Unitarian because I don't believe in hell. If I noticed being in such a place, I would recuse myself.

  • @benthebenevolent1001

    @benthebenevolent1001

    6 жыл бұрын

    Thank you for your comment. It happens that I have uploaded another video, with a name something to the effect of Surplus Enjoyment: Some Examples. I think the content there shows that literal fun isn't his point. This is more along the lines of an unhealthy emotional involvement with a process which is seen as important. As it happens, I have once let myself get too involved in political events, and noticed an unhealthy interest in the embarrassment of those who disagree with me. I concluded that less reading of the news, and more theoretical learning, would be the cure in order to create a healthy distance from things, which turned out to be a good idea. As for your question, "why would they want to do this?" the answer in my example of surplus enjoyment is an emphatic "I don't know, but nonetheless I was doing it." I hope something I've said here clarifies things for you.

  • @coreycox2345

    @coreycox2345

    6 жыл бұрын

    I feel like watching "The Power of Ten." I know what you mean by "I don't know, but nonetheless I was doing it,"

  • @benthebenevolent1001

    @benthebenevolent1001

    6 жыл бұрын

    coreycox2345 The Powers of Ten? You mean that documentary from the 1970's?

  • @coreycox2345

    @coreycox2345

    6 жыл бұрын

    Yes, Tuigen Heim. That and watching documentaries about Nazi's are great distancing tools. If a person is me.

  • @benthebenevolent1001

    @benthebenevolent1001

    6 жыл бұрын

    coreycox2345 Documentaries about the Nazis are too close to the way things are now for me. There are more recent versions of Powers of Ten on KZread, where they compare the size of stars to the earth and sun, as the both of them slowly fade off to insignifigance. Mind blowing stuff. Some black holes are even bigger in terms of density, apparently.

  • @Anabsurdsuggestion
    @Anabsurdsuggestion Жыл бұрын

    Am I deriving surplus enjoyment, seeing the others barely able to contain their displeasure with zizeks profitable meanderings?

  • @fiber04
    @fiber04 Жыл бұрын

    Is this idea that there is a natural gauge for how much "pleasure" a human needs, and anything that exceeds that gauge is superfluous. It is ideology that takes that surplus into something usable/tangible, kind of like an "evolved" or that "natural gauge" 2.0?