Extimacy as a Type of a Symbolic Exchange in a Post-Family Neoliberal Society

In the article, a new situation in intimacy that is transforming in modern neoliberal societies is discussed. Developing the idea and terminology of Jacques Lacan, the author suggests referring to this new intimacy as “extimacy”. The main characteristics of extimacy as a new type of gender symbolic exchange, fundamentally anti-social and hostile to the social exchange, are described. The aim of the article is to analyse the features of extimacy as a kind of symbolic exchange in post-family neoliberal societies. The methodology used in the article is as follows: (1) a structuralist method of analysis of the historical narrative and communication; (2) a semiotic method of analysis of signs and meanings broadcast by the mass media; (3) a philosophical method of abstraction; (4) a philosophical method of analysis and synthesis; (5) psychoanalytic methods in the traditions of Jacques Lacan and Leopold von Sacher-Masoch; (6) a method of socio-philosophical analysis. It is demonstrated that extimacy as a form of symbolic exchange broadcast by the mass media, is characterised by the following components: (1) codification of nudity as a permanent simulacrum of sexuality; (2) presence of a set of semiotic and cultural practices for the involvement of intimacy in the sphere of the visually accessible space, intentionally ostentatious and purposefully demonstrated; (3) elimination of the true intimacy understood as an isolation of the private sphere from the public dimension; (4) simulation of love; (5) radical transformation of traditional gender-power relations; (6) broad involvement of the entertainment component of the mass media to broadcast stereotypes of the new system of gender statuses (mass cinema, video games, Internet entertainment websites, TV entertainment shows, social networks); (7) emergence of new gender identities associated with the visualisation and public demonstration of intimacy as well as fundamental rejection of any hint of the constancy in love relationships (voyeurs, swingers, intimate temporality representatives, supporters of the “night clubs” culture); (8) transgressive transformation of social interpellation into the interpellation of erotic desire; (9) emphasising of the extreme individualisation of society in which the only law of gender communication is the law of individual desire; (10) creation of a psychological complex of guilt in individuals who do not reproduce the strategy of extimacy, the guilt whose symbolic aspects are well described in Althusser's terms of power and obedience. It is revealed that in the social space postmodern extimacy comes into close contact with consumerism and cultural stimulation of mass consumption in which the real relationships of love begin to be simulated, and the social institutions of family and marriage begin to be refused.

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