O operário e a histérica: Dois sujeitos modernos

Abstract

In this article, the author sets up a dialogue between Marxist thinking and psychoanalysis, both of which currently tend to be considered outdated, despite the fact that nothing remotely comparable has been proposed to take their place. Thus, the primary reference is Marx's Manuscripts of 1844, an early work in which he develops what we could call a 'theory of the subject', which is why it is chosen as a reference text for this dialogue with Freudian thinking. The article begins with an account of the first scenes of a Cuban film that masterfully poses the conflict between subjective needs and the communist social pact. It continues by searching for a dimension of desire in Marx's ideas on the human subject, which could provide a link with Freud's thinking. This dialogue ultimately reveals that the discursive potential of these two giants of modern thinking go beyond what most thinkers would effectively see as an insurmountable barrier: the 'worker' and the 'hysteric' - both names of subjects that Marx and Freud, respectively, launched to the world - find the ways forward for a possible dialogue.