Slavoj Žižek facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Slavoj Žižek
Žižek in 2015
Born	(1949-03-21) 21 March 1949 (age 76) Ljubljana, PR Slovenia, FPR Yugoslavia
Education	University of Ljubljana (BA, MA, DA) University of Paris VIII (PhD)
Spouse(s)	Jela Krečič ​ (m. 2013)​
Era	20th-/21st-century philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Continental philosophy Ljubljana school of psychoanalysis Lacanian psychoanalysis Post-Hegelianism Freudo-Marxism
Institutions	University of Ljubljana New York University Birkbeck, University of London
Main interests	Ideology Marxism ontology political theory psychoanalysis cultural studies film theory theology German idealism dialectic
Notable ideas	Interpassivity Over-identification Ideological fantasy (ideology as an unconscious fantasy that structures reality) Revival of dialectical materialism

Slavoj Žižek (born 21 March 1949) is a famous Slovenian philosopher and cultural thinker. He is known for his unique ideas and his work on many topics.

He is a director at the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities in London. He also teaches at New York University and the University of Ljubljana. Žižek studies different types of philosophy, especially those from Europe. He also writes about politics, movies, and religion.

Žižek is a key figure in the Ljubljana School of Psychoanalysis. This group of thinkers studies German philosophy, the ideas of Jacques Lacan, and how ideas shape our world. His first book in English, The Sublime Object of Ideology (1989), made his ideas known around the world. He has written over 50 books and speaks several languages. His special way of speaking and writing has made him very famous.

Life and Early Career

Growing Up in Slovenia

Slavoj Žižek was born in Ljubljana, which was then part of Yugoslavia. His family was middle-class. His father was an economist, and his mother was an accountant. Both of his parents were atheists, meaning they did not believe in God.

He spent much of his childhood in Portorož, a coastal town. There, he learned about Western movies, ideas, and popular culture. When he was a teenager, his family moved back to Ljubljana. He went to Bežigrad High School. He first wanted to be a filmmaker, but he later decided to study philosophy instead.

University Education

In 1967, Žižek started studying philosophy and sociology at the University of Ljubljana. This was a time when Yugoslavia was becoming more open.

He had already started reading French thinkers before university. In 1967, he published the first Slovenian translation of a text by Jacques Derrida. Žižek spent time with thinkers who disagreed with the government. He wrote articles for magazines like Praxis and Problemi. In 1971, he got a research job, but he was fired because his ideas were called "non-Marxist" by the authorities. He earned his doctorate in Philosophy in 1981. After that, he spent a few years doing other things, including a year in the Yugoslav army.

Academic Work and Recognition

In the 1980s, Žižek worked on and translated the writings of Jacques Lacan, Sigmund Freud, and Louis Althusser. He used Lacan's ideas to understand the philosophies of Hegel and Marx.

In 1986, he earned another doctorate in psychoanalysis from the University of Paris VIII. He also wrote introductions for Slovenian translations of detective novels.

In 1988, he published his first book focused on film theory. The next year, his book The Sublime Object of Ideology made him famous around the world.

Žižek writes for many journals and newspapers in different countries. He is known as a "celebrity philosopher" and has been called the "Elvis of cultural theory." A special journal, the International Journal of Žižek Studies, was created to study his work.

Public and Political Life

Involvement in Politics

In the late 1980s, Žižek became known for his articles in Mladina, a youth magazine. This magazine criticized the government's policies in Yugoslavia. He was part of the League of Communists of Slovenia until 1988. He left the party to protest a famous trial. From 1988 to 1990, he worked with groups that wanted Slovenia to become more democratic. In the first free elections in 1990, he ran for a position in Slovenia's presidency.

Žižek is also a member of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25), which started in 2016.

Public Appearances and Documentaries

Žižek speaking in 2011

Žižek and his ideas have been featured in several documentaries:

• Liebe Dein Symptom wie Dich selbst! (1996) is a German film about him.
• The Reality of the Virtual (2004) shows Žižek giving a lecture.
• Zizek! (2005) is a documentary about his philosophy.
• Examined Life (2008) features him talking about the environment at a garbage dump.
• He also appeared in Marx Reloaded (2011).

In 2012, Foreign Policy magazine named him one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers. In 2019, he started a mini-series called How to Watch the News with Slavoj Žižek. He also had a public debate with psychology professor Jordan Peterson in Toronto. They discussed happiness under capitalism versus Marxism.

Personal Life

Žižek has been married four times and has two adult sons. His current wife is Jela Krečič, a Slovenian journalist and philosopher.

In early 2018, Žižek had a health issue that affected the right side of his face. He continued to give lectures and interviews, sometimes using his condition as a way to talk about political ideas.

Besides his native Slovenian, Žižek speaks Serbo-Croatian, French, German, and English very well.

Key Ideas and Views

Žižek's ideas are often described as a mix of Hegel's and Lacan's philosophies. He sees Hegel as the most important thinker for him. He also believes that much of philosophy's key developments happened between the time of Immanuel Kant and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.

Understanding Ideology

One of Žižek's main ideas is about ideology, which are the hidden beliefs that shape how we see the world. He believes that ideology is not just about wrong ideas we consciously hold. Instead, it works at an unconscious level, affecting our actions even if we don't realize it.

He argues that even if people are cynical about politics, they still act in ways that support the system. This means that just knowing something is wrong isn't enough to change it.

Thoughts on Freedom

Žižek believes that in modern society, especially under capitalism, our sense of freedom might hide a deeper lack of freedom. He says that we have "formal freedom," meaning we can choose things within the rules of the current system. But we might not have "actual freedom," which would mean being able to change the rules themselves.

He suggests that sometimes, we "feel free" because we don't even have the words to describe how we are not free. However, he also says that formal freedom is important because it allows us to see how limited our freedom truly is.

Views on Religion

Žižek says that "atheism is a legacy worth fighting for." However, he also finds many important ideas in Christianity, especially Protestantism. He even calls his own position 'Christian Atheism'.

He suggests that the only way to be a true atheist is through Christianity. He argues that other forms of atheism still rely on some external power, like nature or evolution, as a guide. But Christianity, with its idea of God becoming human, brings God down to Earth. For Žižek, this makes it more "godless" in a way, because it removes the need for an outside guarantee.

What He Means by Communism

Žižek often calls himself a "communist," which can be surprising because he strongly criticizes 20th-century communism, calling it a "total failure" and a "catastrophe."

He explains that for him, 'communism' means something different. It's about caring for the "commons"—things like nature and knowledge that belong to everyone. He says that the people who protest against the current system are "communists" in this sense. They are not trying to destroy things, but reacting to how the system is destroying itself. He believes they are "awakening from a dream which is turning into a nightmare."

Electoral Politics

Žižek has strong opinions on elections. In 2017, before the French presidential election, he said that choosing between the main candidates was difficult. He argued that one candidate's policies would just lead to more extreme views anyway.

In 2016, Žižek said that if he were American, he would vote for Donald Trump. He explained that he thought Trump's election would force the major political parties to rethink their ideas. He hoped it would lead to new political changes. He saw the other candidate as representing a dangerous "inertia" or lack of change.

However, for the 2020 US election, Žižek changed his mind. He said that with the coronavirus pandemic, he would prefer Joe Biden over Trump, even though Biden was "far from ideal." He later wrote that Trump was "corroding the ethical substance of our lives," while Biden represented big money more politely.

Filmography

See also

In Spanish: Slavoj Žižek para niños