When The Far-Right Reads Lacan

Authors

  • Octavian-Ionuț OJOG Doctoral School of Philosophy-Department of Philosophy, Faculty of History and Philosophy, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Email: octavian.ojog@ubbcluj.ro. https://orcid.org/0009-0000-7813-8120

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24193/subbphil.2025.sp.iss.05

Keywords:

Reactionary Lacanianism, Far-Right, Aleksandr Dugin, Jacques Lacan, Left Lacanianism, Slavoj Žižek

Abstract

This article examines the recent appropriation of Lacanian Psychoanalysis by Aleksandr Dugin, who utilizes Lacan as a resource for nationalist and illiberal politics. Against the traditional split between the Lacanian Left and the Clinical Orientation, the paper argues for the emergence of an interpretative phenomenon that can be understood as a Reactionary Lacanianism. Through a close reading of Dugin’s texts and interviews, it shows how Lacanian concepts are rigidified into algebraic formulas that foreclose dialectical negativity. This symptomatic misreading exposes both the dangers and the plasticity of Lacan’s corpus: every attempt to stabilize him as a Master inevitably confronts the void at its core.

References

Primary Sources

1. Deleuze, Gilles, Pourparlers, 1972-1990 (Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit, 1990).

2. Dugin, Aleksandr, “Lacan and Psychedelic Trumpism,” Arktos, September 19, 2024, https://arktos.com/2024/09/19/lacan-and-psychedelic-trumpism/.

3. Dugin, Alexander, The Theory of a Multipolar World (London: Arktos Media, 2021).

4. Hegel, G.W.F., Phenomenology of Spirit, trans. A.V. Miller (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977).

5. Lacan, Jacques, Écrits: The First Complete Edition in English, trans. Bruce Fink (New York and London: W. W. Norton, 2006).

6. Lacan, Jacques, The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book XI: The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, ed. Jacques-Alain Miller, trans. Alan Sheridan (New York: W. W. Norton, 1998).

7. Lacan, Jacques, The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book XVII: The Other Side of Psychoanalysis, ed. Jacques-Alain Miller, trans. Russell Grigg (New York: W. W. Norton, 2007).

8. Lacan, Jacques, Television: A Challenge to the Psychoanalytic Establishment, ed. Joan Copjec, trans. Denis Hollier, Rosalind Krauss, and Annette Michelson (New York: W. W. Norton, 1990).

Secondary Sources

1. baudrillard-lacanian, Aleksandr Dugin: 'We can be 100 times more interesting than Zizek thru Lacan' with Bracha Ettinger, YouTube video, July 17, 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDc0kruPoDk.

2. bilet biletaa, Dugin on Lacan (with subtitles), YouTube video, December 10, 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1kg6higRcc.

3. Homer, Sean, Jacques Lacan (London and New York: Routledge, 2005).

4. Infrared, HAZ x DUGIN: Fascism, Žižek and Lacan, YouTube video, January 7, 2025, https://youtube.com/watch?v=xjeozrLaIkM&t=2s.

5. Miller, Jacques-Alain, “Entretien: Lacan et la politique,” interview by Jean-Pierre Cléro and Lynda Lotte, Cités 16 (2003): 106–112.

6. Roudinesco, Élisabeth, Jacques Lacan: An Outline of a Life and a History of a System of Thought, trans. Barbara Bray (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997).

7. Stavrakakis, Yannis, Lacan and the Political (London and New York: Routledge, 1999).

8. Stavrakakis, Yannis, The Lacanian Left: Psychoanalysis, Theory, Politics (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007).

9. Žižek, Slavoj, “Vance, Dugin, Lacan,” Sublation Magazine, October 25, 2024, https://www.sublationmag.com/post/vance-dugin-lacan.

Downloads

Published

2025-12-30

How to Cite

OJOG, O.-I. (2025). When The Far-Right Reads Lacan. Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Philosophia, 70(Special Issue), 93–113. https://doi.org/10.24193/subbphil.2025.sp.iss.05