The subversion of Eros: Dialectic,revolt,and murder in the polity of the soul

Abstract

The political is most often conceived in terms of being exterior to the individual. Yet, if capitalism represents a kind of ubiquitous horizon, one that succeeds in conforming the unrestricted desires of the individual to the burdens of `reality', as Marcuse suggests in Eros and Civilization (1966), then the political can easily constitute the interior as well. The unified self becomes the projection of an interior polity composed of conflicting interests struggling for control. In this article I explore the phenomena of self-destructive sexualities through a reengagement with Marcuse's performance principle. First, I argue that Marcuse's concept of performance requires an elaboration that prohibits discrete boundaries for when an individual is performing and when they are purely governed by the quest for pleasure. I suggest that only in the briefest instances is pleasure free from the strictures of ideological performance. Consequential to the expansion of Marcuse's performance principle, I examine the dialectic reversal of Eros and Thanatos that suggests self-destructive sexuality as a struggle against endogenous political repression. Finally, I suggest that a self-destructive sexuality is a political act where the body of the individual intersects coextensively with the site of the performance principle.