The 10 best books by Slavoj Žižek

The controversial Slovenian philosopher has works that mark the cutting edge of current thought.

The Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek is considered by many people to be the most relevant European philosopher of the present day.

His way of thinking, which blends Marxism with the ideas of Jacques Lacan, is a sharp scalpel with which the pages of Žižek's books dissect both the current issues most closely related to geopolitics and the great social phenomena that are setting the pace of history.

The Middle East refugee crisis, the rise of extreme right-wing movements, the emergence of forces demanding greater political participation for the popular classes and the US invasions in other countries are analyzed by the Slovenian as part of a historical dynamic linked to the cyclical problems that appear in capitalism and, like Noam Chomsky, this philosopher believes that the great oligopolies are strong enough to influence our schemes of thought.

• We recommend: "20 phrases of Slavoj Žižek that will make you think".

Books by Slavoj Žižek to understand his philosophy.

The work of Slavoj Žižek is especially interesting for those who want to understand the role that our ideology plays in our way of thinking, acting and relating, since, for this philosopher, even the person most convinced of being apolitical clings to a political ideology without being aware of it by not questioning it occasionally.

Let us see what are ten of Slavoj Zizek's most relevant books.

Welcome to the desert of the real

In this book, Žižek analyzes the post 9/11 world in order to question some of the "great truths" upon on which Western democracies and their diagnosis of the world's problems are based. Some of the totems against which he charges in these pages are the discourse of the war against terrorism, predominant for years in the United States, or the supposed privileged position from which we are able to know the problems of non-Western countries from developed democracies.

• If you are interested in the book, you can find more information in this link.

2. The year we dreamed dangerously

As in other books by Slavoj Žižek, here he talks about social movements and revolutions. However, here we talk about a period in which these gained special importance to the point of changing the way of thinking of many people: the year 2011, when protest movements such as 15-M, Occupy Wall Street and when the so-called "Arab Springs" gained strength. The philosopher analyzes the way in which these small cultural and political revolutions appeared and ended up mutating into less short-term initiatives.

• To read more about the book, click on this link.

3. Eat your symptom! Lacan in and out of Hollywood

In this book Slavoj Žižek shows his side more related to Lacanian psychoanalysis. With the large doses of humor and provocative mood that characterize him, the philosopher talks about cinema, psychoanalysis and the ways in which our thinking articulates the perception of reality.

• If you are interested in the book, click here.

4. The new class struggle

The refugee crisis is tackled head-on by this philosopher, who devotes the book to emphasize the dedicates the book to emphasize the need to solve the problem at its root.. To limit oneself to managing the collection of refugees without looking beyond the reading of the situation is to lose two wars: to embrace the discourse of the xenophobic extreme right and, on the other hand, to legitimize forms of military intervention in countries outside the Welfare State.

• To read more about this work, click here.

5. Repeating Lenin

In the pages of this book the Slovenian author describes the state of progressive movements and the way in which they depend on ambiguous principles that are easy to manipulate from outside. The philosopher looks at the figure of Lenin to rescue principles of discourse elaboration and political argumentation..

• If you are interested in the book, click on this link.

6. First as tragedy, then as farce

In this book Žižek uses his Marxist perspective to explain how liberalism as an ideology has collapsed.The book is a clear example of how the system of property is used to impose policies over the will of the people and how, under formal freedom, the most flagrant inequalities can be perpetuated and increased.

• On this page you will find more information about this book.

7. How to read Lacan

One of Žižek's best-known books, although its title is somewhat misleading; rather than being a guide on how to interpret the writings and seminars of the French psychoanalyst, it is a way to understand the way in which Lacan's writings are interpreted, it is a way of understanding the way in which Zizek brings Lacanian thought to life in his analyses of reality and the in his analysis of reality and art.

• To read more about this book go to this page.

8. In defense of intolerance

Žižek devotes the pages of this book to criticize the depoliticization of economy and moral relativism. which for the philosopher does nothing more than feed a system of domination based on neoliberalism and that, however, is assumed by left-wing movements.

• Are you interested in this book? Here is more information about it.

9. The Sublime Object of Ideology

One of Žižek's books that go deeper into the philosophy of this author. At The Sublime Object of Ideologythis philosopher criticizes ideas deeply rooted in postmodern philosophy and the relativism to which and in the relativism to which it is associated through psychoanalytic theory.

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10. The puppet and the dwarf: the perverse core of Christianity

In this work Žižek discusses the religious phenomenon, focusing on the Judeo-Christian tradition and recent forms of New Age spirituality.. Starting from a very focused analysis on the political implications of religious beliefs, he points out the way in which religion is explained through Lacanian psychoanalytic ideas.

• If you are interested in the book, you can learn more about it here.