The first section of the reading, which for my purposes will be the intro through chapter 2, deals extensively with the Subject and his relation to the social and to his subjection. The idea of a person as subject connotes a very negative meaning which springs from the definition of subjection that was laid out at the beginning of the intro. Combined with the ideas of bondage, being a subject awakens thoughts of slavery, servitude, and meaninglessness. However, the subject, especially in the context of The Psychic Life, has a much higher status, and if not status at least role.

I’m having a hard time accepting Zizek’s statement (from p. 25) that “commodity fetishism occurs in capitalist societies, but it capitalism relations between men [and/or other gender identities] are definitely NOT ‘festishized.’”