24: Drugs and the Death Drive feat. Ben Fong

Abby and Patrick welcome academic and writer Ben Fong, author of the new book Quick Fixes: Drugs in America from Prohibition to the 21st Century Binge as well as Death and Mastery: Psychoanalytic Drive Theory and the Subject of Late Capitalism. They discuss the many different reasons people take drugs; American exceptionalism with respect to drug consumption; how drug policy and drug discourse is never really just about drugs; what the distinction between legal and illegal drugs both illuminates and obscures; the fundamental fantasies that accompany drug prohibition as well as the fantasies that surround particular drugs themselves; the very near future of psychedelic therapy and its relation to current treatments for anxiety and depression; individual versus social drug experiences; cocaine and neoliberalism; the not-necessarily-liberatory politics of psychedelics; how drug advertising has changed throughout the course of the last century; and the biomedical turn in psychiatry and its relation to shifting social, political, and economic conditions.

Ben’s new book Quick Fixes is here: https://www.versobooks.com/products/2981-quick-fixes

His previous book Death and Mastery is here: http://cup.columbia.edu/book/death-and-mastery/9780231542616

You can read his recent article, “Who Deserves Amphetamines? A Social History of Stimulants” about the amphetamine shortage here: https://thepointmag.com/politics/who-deserves-amphetamines/

And his new essay, “The Jobs and Freedom Strategy” is here: https://catalyst-journal.com/2023/08/the-jobs-and-freedom-strategy

Plus if you’re in Chicago, you can catch Ben talking about Quick Fixes on October 13th at the Seminary Co-op bookstore: https://www.semcoop.com/event/ben-fong-quick-fixes-cedric-johnson

Have you noticed that Freud is back? Got questions about psychoanalysis? Or maybe you’ve traversed the fantasy and lived to tell the tale? Leave us a voicemail! 484 775-0107

A podcast about psychoanalysis, politics, pop culture, and the ways we suffer now. New episodes on Saturdays. Follow us on social media:

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/OrdinaryUnhappiness
Twitter: @UnhappinessPod
Instagram: @OrdinaryUnhappiness
Patreon: patreon.com/OrdinaryUnhappiness

Theme song:
Formal Chicken - Gnossienne No. 1
https://open.spotify.com/album/2MIIYnbyLqriV3vrpUTxxO
Provided by Fruits Music