The American Dream is a central element of American culture and forms an integral part of the American way of life. In one sense, it represents a distilled version of American values and some sort of ...an archetype of (material) success. At the same time, both in the USA as well as abroad it constitutes a symbol of progress and is synonymous with hope generally. Nevertheless, over the last few years it has been criticised due to the growing inequality and decreasing upward social mobility compared to other democratic countries. It is precisely this gap between its emancipatory potential and its idealised image on one side and a set of indicators suggesting the American dream may have utterly failed that has given rise to a series of objections leading to the assertion that it may represent an empty or even a false promise. This article analyses some of the most important aspects of the 'standard' interpretation of the American dream and argues that its basic question is not substantive (what is the American dream) but motivational (why is the interest in their further preservation and reproduction so important).
First of all, certain differences between man and woman will always exist; her eroticism, and thus her sexual world, possessing a singular form, cannot fail to engender in her a sensuality, a ...singular sensitivity: her relation to her body, to the male body, and to the child will never be the same as those man has with his body, with the female body, and with the child. ...Lacan's statement "there is no sexual relationship" relates to the larger problematic of the other, or more precisely, the "real" of the other-the neighbor. On this account, Lol's femininity is resolutely self-enclosed and is removed from language tout court. ...Lol's femininity (her "truer" self, as it were) risks becoming indistinguishable from an "ineffable feminine secret" (Salecl, "Introduction" 8), with the unforeseen consequence of isolating Lol, removing her from language and mediation as such, that is, from the novel's circuit of desire. "Since sexuality is the domain in which we get closest to the intimacy of another human being, totally exposing ourselves to him or her, sexual enjoyment is real for Lacan: something traumatic in its breathtaking intensity, yet impossible in the sense that we cannot ever make sense of it.
In her discussion of the exposures of privacy in contemporary culture, Renata Salecl presents a broad vista that comprises legal and commercial as well as psychoanalytic and aesthetic perspectives on ...privacy. In pointing out the historical variability of the social construction and eventual legal protection of privacy, she stresses the impact of developing communication and surveillance technologies on the growing demand for protective measures and devices against intrusions into what could be regarded as the private sphere of the individual. Wessely believes that there is more to privacy than mere exclusivity or the legally enforceable interest in the right "to be let alone" and control the dissemination of information about oneself together with the construction of one's public self.
Ashton reviews "Sexuation_SIC3" edited by Renata Salecl, "Gender" edited by Anna Tripp, and "Fair Sex, Savage Dreams: Race, Psychoanalysis, Sexual Difference" by Jean Walton.
