Renata Salecl

“The ego (one’s self-perception) is a very shaky structure, easily undermined by unconscious drives and desires. It is possible to repress those…

— Renata Salecl

Freud also said we choose our own neuroses. Capitalism is the neurosis of humanity.

— Renata Salecl

“No matter how much we may try to manipulate our feelings of anger with the techniques these books suggest, in the end…

— Renata Salecl

We still can't control the consequences our choices will bring. Not only do we want freedom of choice, but we also want…

— Renata Salecl

When I speak about the "tyranny of choice," I mean an ideology that originates in the era of post-industrial capitalism. It began…

— Renata Salecl

“The film nicely shows how a person may make a rational decision to achieve a goal while at the same time unconsciously…

— Renata Salecl

“Love is linked to the fact that in the end we know nothing about the object that attracts us in the Other,…

— Renata Salecl

“By working so hard at self-improvement we lose the energy and ability to participate in any form of social change”

— Renata Salecl

I do have the power. I can decide for myself what I want, even if the thought stresses me out.

— Renata Salecl

One of the greatest gains of capitalism is that even the proletarian slave feels like a master. He believes he has the…

— Renata Salecl

Love emerges at the point of a lacking word, and one offers one's being to fill the lack.

— Renata Salecl

A friend, who's a psychologist, told me about a patient once: a woman who was well educated, had a good job, a…

— Renata Salecl

I don't criticize political or electoral freedom, but capitalism's perversion of the concept: the illusion that I hold the power over my…

— Renata Salecl

We can live a more relaxed life. We can accept that our decisions aren't rational, that we are always conditioned by society;…

— Renata Salecl

Sigmund Freud already discovered that suffering gives us pleasure - in a strange masochistic way. The tyranny of choice exploits that weakness.…

— Renata Salecl

The position of the hysterical subject is that he or she always guesses what is behind the curtain, that is why such…

— Renata Salecl

We constantly feel stressed, overwhelmed and guilty.It's our own fault if we're unhappy. It means we made a bad decision.

— Renata Salecl

Every time we decide for something, we lose something else. Buying a car is a great example. A lot of people not…

— Renata Salecl

We aren't really the victims. After all, we created the system ourselves and as long as we keep consuming, it will continue…

— Renata Salecl

“The idea of choice has deeply penetrated our perception of feelings, as though we can ‘choose’ whether or not to have them.”

— Renata Salecl