International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest

Extract

Born in Ljubljana, Slovenia, Slavoj Žižek was awarded a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and sociology in 1971, a Master of Arts in philosophy in 1975, and a Doctor of Arts in philosophy in 1981 at the Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, Ljubljana. In 1985, at the University of Paris-VIII, he received his second PhD, this time in psychoanalysis. After his MA studies he wished to remain at the University of Ljubljana, but was rejected on account of his potential political and theoretical aberrations. However, in 1977 he obtained a post at the Central Committee of the League of Slovene Communists, where he wrote speeches for politicians and continued studying philosophy. In 1979 he became a researcher at the University of Ljubljana's Institute for Sociology. This was also the period of the foundation of the Society for Theoretical Psychoanalysis with the takeover of the editorial board of the journal Problemi. The so-called “Slovenian theoretical school” cannot be understood without its struggle for the Marxist legacy; it was through critique of classical Marxism that the fusion of post-Marxism (thinkers like Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe were important in this regard) and psychoanalysis took place. Žižek's main academic fields remain Marxism, German classical philosophy, and psychoanalysis, whereas the basis for his thought is located in Jacques Lacan's theory. Žižek ... log in or subscribe to read full text