From the “beautiful soul” to the “ugly body”? a materialistic analysis of political subjectivity

Abstract

In the light of the social and political movements currently developing in Spain, we reflect on the conditions of possibility of a project that resists repetition’s inertia and previous impasses. A process, in short, capable of keeping an open angle to event and an idea of community without the trap of Totality and its segregation effects. Various approaches to such question have rethought the concept of subject and/or subjectivity. The present reflection, on the contrary, takes up the notion of “beautiful soul” by Hegel and then Lacan, in order to produce a small twirl by introducing the notion of “ugly body”, as an alternative to such subjective position. The analyses takes two axes: 1- how to conceptualize the “ugliness” of the body, avoiding a dualistic or idealistic approach; 2- we examine de lacanian notion of “subjective rectification” and its political application.