Traverse The Fantasy Of Ideology

When the voice of the end of ideology is argued hotly and the political meaning ofideology is almost forgotten, Slavoj (?)i(?)ek raises the flag of ideology criticism overagain. In his ideology theory, there are three notions of ideology: first, there is ideology'in itself', next, there is ideology'for itself', finally, there is ideology'in-and-foritself'.His research is mainly on the ideology'in-and-for-itself', which isunconsciousness presupposition in people's praxis. He also analyzes and discloses themechanism how ideology controls people's desire and enjoyment from the angle ofsocial psychology and cultural psychology.(?)i(?)ek thinks that the commodity fetishism is ideology'in-and-for-itself'. Hebegins the criticism of ideology with it. At first, (?)i(?)ek makes his research on the formof commodity,in the action of exchange, people are not conscious of the socialdimension of their activity. But just because of unconsciousness, the exchange can takeplace in the course of nature. (?)i(?)ek thinks that it is also the dimension of ideology.Ideology is the unconsciousness presupposition of people's action. Then, (?)i(?)ek beginswith the symptomal reading of commodity fetishism, (?)i(?)ek affirms Marx's criticalresearch on commodity fetishism and considers his criticism is symptomal, that is tosay, Marx already upset the illusory universalism of liberty and equality in capitalismwith the existence of working-class. (?)i(?)ek adopts different way, and thinks thatcommodity fetishism is the result of structure misrecognition from the angle ofstructuralism. He considers that commodity fetishism is not only the conflict of humanand commodity, but also the conflict of the structure and the composing element. Oncepeople consider the property of composing element in the structure as the property ofcomposing element itself, fetishism inversion occurs. In (?)i(?)ek's opinion, the premiseof structure misrecognition is the structure replacement, namely, the thing replaces thesubject to believe, and the inner sensibility of subject is materialized. And then, whatthey know and what they believe is different. Fetishistic disavowal takes place. I knowthe thing is like this, but what I believe in my activity is another thing. (?)i(?)ek thinksthat I know, but I believe is the formula of ideology. On the base of symptomal reading, (?)i(?)ek thinks that this kind of reading isinapplicability to cynicism which is the most important form of ideology at present.They have already known the control of ideology, but they are still doing it, and refuseto break off the relation with ideology. The reason is that the illusion of ideology is notin their knowledge but in their activity. They don't know that they have already beencontrolled by the ideology fantasy in their activity. And then, (?)i(?)ek emphasizes thedifference between symptom and fantasy. Ideology is not the illusion which covers upthe reality, but the unconscious fantasy which constructs the social reality. The realityis not understood by common way, but is the result of the construction of the symbolorder which is not totally defeated, fantasy is not mean illusion, but the fantasy frameof constructing the reality. It conceals the variance of the symbolic order and the gap ofthe Other's desire. The unconsciousness is not implying the instinct desire, but the wayof ideology's function. Therefore, (?)i(?)ek gives up the traditional understanding ofideology; he doesn't think that ideology is illusory consciousness. He thinks thatideology constructs the fantasy frame of understanding the reality which decides us todesire what. The fantasy frame will construct the reality into consistent andsignificative field, and translate the inner antagonize into some exterior element'sinterruption. So (?)i(?)ek thinks that ideology constructs the reality which we live in, andthe ideology is not illusory consciousness but the social existence. While, which givesthe consistency to ideology? (?)i(?)ek thinks the key is quilting point. The quilting pointis the master signifier or dominating signifier. It fixes the floating signifier and givesthem fixed meaning. But the master signifier doesn't contain any thing, it is a rigiddesignator. By the original naming and the synonymous repetition mechanism,ideology is endowed with consistency.By the explanation of the meaning of ideology, (?)i(?)ek expatiates on the relation ofideology and subject construction. The root of ideology is the separated subject and thereal lack. After the construction of the symbolic, the subject is far away from theoriginal unification with his mother, he enters into a progress of self-split andself-alienation. Ideology is to make up the real lack, and to avoid the anxiety and painwhen they face the Real. The function of Ideology is to provide a sublime object to fillup the void of the subject. The subject is located in this kind of inert and empty object.There is not any property in the object. It just takes up some certain place in theconstruction, produces something which is in it and more than itself. So it attracts subject to desire and seeks for. It is not the object which people desire, but theobject-cause of people's desire. The relation between subject and object is a fantasyrelation. The subject doesn't control the object any more. He becomes pure empty andseeks for infinite desire. The object is not controlled by subject, but a kind of spectreexistence, which keeps the lack of subject's desire. The relation of the subject andobject is an infinite battle of seeking for desire and keeping the lack of subject's desire.Ideology mechanism still includes identification and transference which willindoctrinate people with it. By the identification with ideology, people will take thefantasy which is constructed by the ideology and social system as their inner desire.Transference is illusion which will make people consider ideology as truth. Just by theillusion, the ideology can control people with the name of truth. In a word, by theidentification and transference, the ideology enters into people's heart; people obey thecontrol of ideology with pleasure.How to criticize the fantasy of ideology? Are we able to traverse the fantasy ofideology? (?)i(?)ek thinks that there are three steps to do this, interpretation of symptoms,going through fantasy and interpellation of the real. The relation of them is very close.By interpretating symptoms, we can reveal the breakpoint of ideology and the innerpsychological mechanism, namely surplus enjoyment. Based on this, we can keepdistance from the fantasy and experience how the fantasy fills up the inner variance.By the action of concealing, it misleads people to believe that it hides something. Aftertraversing the fantasy, we will find that there is nothing in the rearward of ideology.Only by controlling people's fantasy space, people's desire and enjoyment, can itfunction well. At last, we have to interpellate the real, check the ingredient whichrepresents the impossibility of the society. By interpellating the impossibility, (?)i(?)ekemphasizes that the society can not be a positive,integrated and self-closure entity. So,we should take the impossibility as our aim in positive sense; adopt the real politicalaction which is decided by abysm. Only by this, we can not compromise with thereality any more. Finally, we can achieve the criticism of the capitalism ideology.After the description of (?)i(?)ek's ideology in the main, we generalize and reflect hisideology theory. Which way will (?)i(?)ek's ideology theory tend towards? Firstly, (?)i(?)ek'sideology theory reveals the main trend of the ideology at present, namely secretivenessand specter. The control of ideology is more cryptic, it is difficult for people to realizeits control. Ideology is a kind of existence which is in-and-for-itself, which is in people's activity but not in their knowledge, which is self-referent and which isconstructed by the relation of fantasy. (?)i(?)ek penetrates the trend and transfers thekeystone of ideology research from consciousness to unconsciousness, the mechanismof ideology from meaning to enjoyment. His theory also deepens the research of therelation between ideology and social existence, between ideology and the constructionof subject. These are (?)i(?)ek's contribution in ideology theory. Secondly, (?)i(?)ek'sideology theory indicates the tension between depth psychology and ideology theory.They are similar in some way; they both display the social contradiction with twist way,they are the imaginative substitute solution of social contradiction, they both focus onunconsciousness. But they are not consistent totally, the depth psychology is onlylimited in people's unconsciousness presupposition in praxis. It lacks the grand visualfield of history materialism, and lacks the social and historical dimensions. Thirdly,though (?)i(?)ek protests to traverse the fantasy of ideology, but he does not provideconcrete way to break away from the control of ideology, so his ideology theory cannot escape from the deadlock of ideology.