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Organization Studies
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Peripheral Vision

Subjectivity and the Organized Other: Between Symbolic Authority and Fantasmatic Enjoyment

Yannis Stavrakakis

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, yanstavr{at}yahoo.co.uk

Psychoanalysis, and especially the work of Jacques Lacan, has not been adequately utilized within organization studies. This paper argues that Lacan's teaching has the potential to enrich discussions within this field and to suggest fruitful orientations for future research. Analysing some of the central concepts and theoretical logics introduced by Lacan (such as lack, desire, the symbolic, enjoyment and fantasy), it explores the desire behind identity construction (agency), the reliance of this desire on processes of subjection to the socio-symbolic order (structure), as well as the limits marking both these domains. It argues that Lacanian theory can illuminate the (negative) dialectic between subject and organized Other and account for obedience and attachment to organized frameworks of social life in two ways: first, by focusing on the symbolic presuppositions of authority and power; and, second, by exploring the role of fantasy and enjoyment in sustaining them and in neutralizing resistance.

Key Words: desire • fantasy • identification • jouissance • Lacan • lack • power • psychoanalysis • resistance • subjection

Organization Studies, Vol. 29, No. 7, 1037-1059 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0170840608094848
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