Psychoanalysis k – Sam Franz – rks seniors Cover Letter

Solves Expert Discourse

17.Alt solves expert discourse

In today’s world, expert knowledge necessarily confronts the subject as an external imperative laced with the power of prohibition. The rise of the expert corresponds to the increasing complexity and treacherousness of everyday life; contemporary existence seems to demand expert analysis to render it navigable. In his account of the emergence of what he calls a “risk society,” Ulrich Beck notices the politics of expert knowledge changing sides. He points out: “The non-acceptance of the scientific definition of risks is not something to be reproached as ‘irrationality’ in the population,- but quite to the contrary, it indicates that the cultural premises of accept- ability contained in scientific and technical statements on risks are wrong. The technical risk experts are mistaken in the empirical accuracy of their implicit value premises, specifically in their assumptions of what appears acceptable to the population.”9 Experts provide guidelines that allow subjects to navigate the contours of contemporary society, in which risk confronts us everywhere, but the experts perform this function with no proper sense of what the population desires. In this process, experts inevitably assume the role of authority figures. As Beck's statement above indicates, from the perspective of the general population itself, the relationship between the expert and the population is adversarial.

Through psychoanalytic thought, we can gain insight into the ramifications of the rise of the expert authority and the decline of the master. The emergence of the expert as the figure of authority fundamentally changes the political terrain, and our political thinking must adjust to this transformation. Psychoanalytic thought represents a privileged vehicle for making the adjustment. Combating the expert is much more difficult than combating the master: the knowledge that would subvert mastery becomes part of the power that the expert wields and thus loses its subversive power. A different political program — one that focuses on enjoyment rather than knowledge— becomes necessary because the master and the expert take up radically different positions relative to enjoyment.