The Self-Devouring Society

An absolutely remarkable essay on the links between narcissism and ultra-capitalism. It should be read with a solid reserve of coffee and silence at your disposal: its analysis is as fascinating as it is sharp. --Maia Mazaurette, GQ France Anselm Jappe describes the slow development of capitalism through the growing narcissism of the subject. The indifference and cruelty of capitalism, obsessed with quantitative value...is mirrored in the narcissist's indifference and cruelty to others. --Romaric Godin, Mediapart ...Capitalism creates a profound anthropological mutation, according to the author, by destroying all the symbolic and material limits to its expansion.... The globalization of capitalism being practically complete today, the modern subject ends up internalizing the ' death drive' of this fetishized world, the crucible for the outbursts of extreme violence that strike at the very heart of the most developed countries. --Mehdi Benallal, Le Monde Diplomatique Praise for previous work: A clear-headed account... far and away the best we have so far. --Times Literary Supplement The only book on Debord in either French or English that can be unreservedly recommended... particularly useful for its extensive treatment of the Marxian connection that is usually ignored in culture-oriented accounts of the Situationists. --Ken Knabb, editor of Situationist International Anthology Jappe successfully gets to grips with the content of Debord's and the SI's activity in a way that is accessible and doesn't require a vast amount of prior knowledge or an extensive vocabulary of obscure jargon in order to understand it. --Do or Die Political writing is always instrumental as well as utopian. Debord's is no exception. Only sometimes writing has to reconcile itself to the idea that its time of instrumentality--its time as a weapon--lies a little in the future. Jappe's book is true to its subject, above all, because it reads Debord, and helps us read him, with that future in mind. --T.J. Clark, from the Foreword