Psychoanalytical-Historical Perspective on Capitalism and Politics

Mino Vianello is former Professor of Economic Sociology at Rome University, Italy. He was awarded the 2000 Descartes Prize for his research on gender difference at the top of public life in 27 countries.

"Vianello’s new volume is built on Horkheimer’s and Adorno's Dialectic of Enlightenment, considered a milestone in criticism of the excesses of rationality disseminated in the world by the West. Such excesses, designed to achieve financial results, are themselves a product of the overwhelming predominance of an instrumental mentality, typical of the actual male. This mentality is not due to biological causes. Indeed, the endless socioeconomic and environmental distortions can be remedied, first and foremost, by rectifying the abstract and strategic reasoning of masculine thought, wholly aimed at conquest, with feminine empathic rationality: a resource that has always been available, but used until today almost solely for domestic purposes." – Luigi Zoja, analytical psychologist, Italy; author of Paranoia: The Madness that Makes History"Vianello continues to display for us his immense and vital project of revisioning the social sciences in the cause of social justice and depth psychological consciousness. His interweave of history, politics, economics, power dynamics and psychoanalysis is an achievement that virtually no-one else could emulate. As ever, he keeps gender relations at the core of the enterprise. No-one else working on socioeconomic themes inserts the ‘distortions of the male psyche’ in as deft, challenging, uncompromising and up-to-date way as Vianello." – Andrew Samuels, former Professor of Analytical Psychology, University of Essex, UK; author of The Political Psyche"This book is an outstanding contribution to the ongoing debate on different contemporary issues. First of all, capitalism as dominant mode of production, with reference to Karl Marx’s reflections. But Vianello adds a new perspective, Jung’s version of psychoanalysis, which is lacking so far in the debates. That leads him also to a new assessment of feminism. Finally, he argues convincingly that to overcome the ongoing global crises radical federalism is the way to go. Vianello’s interdisciplinary approach is very well conceived and accessible. Altogether, a well-structured book at the right moment, for which a great number of readers is to be wished." – Professor Emeritus György Széll, University of Osnabrück, Germany

• INTERMEZZO 1: THE CONTRADICTION1.GENDER AND POWER2.INSTRUMENTAL RATIONALITY AND EMPATHIC RATIONALITY3.STRATEGIC AND EMPATHIC MENTALITyINTERMEZZO 2: SPACE4.AN EXAMPLE: THE LAW5.THE NEW FEMALE CONTEXTINTERMEZZO 3: WHAT HORKHEIMER AND ADORNO COULD NOT THINK OF6.THE LEGACY OF CLASS STRUGGLE7.THE LINGERING DEATH OF NATION STATES8.EMPATHY AS A COLLECTIVE PHENOMENONINTERMEZZO 4 – IMMIGRATION 9.A NEW ROAD TO DEMOCRACYINTERMEZZO 5 – RADICAL FEDERALISM