ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the theme of identification and identity in the context of common discourse today, that of capitalism.
The chapter begins by clarifying that subjectivities, that is – the consciousness of identity of oneself – are always historical, and the subject adapts to the discourse of its time through identification with the social Other. Lacan invented a neologism for this process – the subject is “apparolé” to a discourse. Discourse, according to Lacan, is what knots together the structure of language and the effect of language on the living; it makes a social link by ordering differences, and therefore regulates and orders also jouissance.
The chapter then elaborates on the effects specific to capitalism, which, unlike discourses of antiquity, does not create an order of jouissance and therefore undoes social links, foreclosing the singular subjects under the form of homogenisation in regard to their function in the productive machine. As a result, capitalism increases identity fervour and identity rivalries, and today’s subjects are increasingly divided between the aspiration to a “valorised” distinguished identity and a desire for integration marked by the anguish of exclusion.
The chapter concludes by suggesting that segregation is that which makes up for the social link when it is lacking. But it emphasises that the link between identity and segregation can only be understood at the level of the identity of alienation. As regards the identity of separation, there is an entirely different question at stake which will be discussed in the following chapters.
Universalism has been introduced by science which, by definition, excludes from consideration what is singular. Dedicated to finding what constitutes laws in each of its fields, it forecloses the singular subject. Capitalism realises this foreclosure and constitutes it as a reality in the world under the form of homogenisation since it knows nothing of beings except their function in the productive machine.
