Reflections on the contemporaneity

Abstract

Based on Freud’s analysis about the consequences of the cultural insertion of Man and of the consequences upon him by the civilizing process and Lacan’s on the place occupied by the symbolic function of the father in the aforementioned insertion, the author focuses critically on crucial issues to the subjectivity of the subjects in our time. It is argued that the discourses that shape the contemporary man have as a focal point to privilege the enjoyment and not the desire. This articulates directly with the weakening of the symbolic function of the father (Name of the Father), producing as an effect at the level of the imaginary, the figure of a helpless father. The author concludes that in contemporary times, the subject, if substituted by the object, is reduced to an image by the discourses of advertising, politics, university and science. According to this, we would be still living the dictatorship of medical practices, imperialism of techniques and of numbers. Thus, the body, apart from the subject is approached as an automatic machine that breaks down and needs to be fixed. The fetishistic strategy aims not only the exile of men, but also the closing of their mouths and ears. In this direction, paraphrasing Fernando Pessoa, the author thus summarizes the ideology - subjectivity - of our time: To talk is not necessary. To whish is not necessary. To enjoy is necessary.