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#redirect [[Image:TicklishSubject.jpg |right|frame]]   Žižek, S. (1999) The Ticklish Subject: The Absent Centre of PoliticalOntology, London and New York: Verso.Hailed by some critics as Žižek's most important work to date, itis - judging by the number of articles it has spawned - certainly oneof his most comprehensive monographs. Its central thesis is that thenursery tale' of the cogito which has dominated modern thought (inits guise as the self transparent thinking subject) is, in fact, a misnomerthat fails to acknowledge the cogito's constitutive moment of madness.Structured in three parts, the book takes to task critics of Cartesiansubjectivity in the fields of German Idealism, French political philos-ophy and Anglo-American cultural studies, directing blame for contem-porary scientific and technological catastrophes away from the cogitoand laying it squarely at the door of capitalism. While the overall philo-sophical argument is enjoyable in itself, Žižek also delivers a series offascinating local insights which range across all aspects of political,cultural and social life. While parts of the book are very demanding - and to that end I would not recommend it to a first-time Žižekreader it does reward your patience. a playful critique of the intellectual assault upon human subjectivity    == def ==The starting point of my book on the subject is that almost all philosophical orientations today, even if they strongly oppose each other, agree on some kind of basic anti-subjectivist stance. For example, Jurgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida would both agree that the Cartesian subject had to be deconstructed, or, in the case of Habermas, embedded in a larger inter-subjective dialectics. Cognitivists, Hegelians — everybody is in agreement here.I am tempted to say that we must return to the subject — though not a purely rational Cartesian one. My idea is that the subject is inherently political, in the sense that 'subject', to me, denotes a piece of freedom — where you are no longer rooted in some firm substance, you are in an open situation. Today we can no longer simply apply old rules. We are engaged in paradoxes, which offer no immediate way out. In this sense, subjectivity is political. [[Category:Works]][[Category:Books]][[Category:Žižek]][[Category:Psychoanalysis]]