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Theory, Culture & Society
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Too Close to the Money

A Theory of Compulsive Gambling

Ole Bjerg

Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy, Copenhagen Business School, ob.lpf{at}cbs.dk

This article explores the relationship between gambling and capitalism. The subjective being of the compulsive gambler provides insight into the role of money in capitalism. Using the Lacanian approach of Zizek, money is analysed as a sublime object of capitalist ideology. In gambling, however, the subject engages money in a very direct encounter with the Lacanian `Real', circumventing the ordinary symbolic order of capitalism. This results in a momentary de-sublimation of money, stripping it of the metaphysical properties otherwise vested in it by capitalism. For the compulsive gambler, the de-sublimation has become permanent, making it impossible for him to function as an ordinary capitalist subject. He has come too close to money, leaving him in a pathological state of being out of joint with capitalism.

Key Words: addiction • capitalism • desire • Lacan • Marx • Zizek

Theory, Culture & Society, Vol. 26, No. 4, 47-66 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0263276409104968
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