Perversion of the crisis

Abstract

The starting point of the text is the question how a perversion of crisis 2008 can be understood. It first points out the ambiguity of the very term crisis itself and links it to ambiguity of perversion throughout history. In Lacan perversion is strictly conceived as a structure in which the Other is made to exist. Similar logic can be found in neoliberalism in the figure of the market as always finding solutions. The fetishistic disavowal at work in neoliberalism gets another turn in the crisis, but for it to really work it must be supplemented by what Freud calls ‘fausse reconnnaissance’, which something foreign and unknown cuts down to well known. With this final turn one can speak about perversion of the crisis.