Adrian Johnston (philosopher)

Adrian Johnston (born 1968) is an American philosopher and psychoanalytic theorist known for his work in contemporary continental philosophy, particularly his engagement with the philosophy of Slavoj Žižek, dialectical materialism, and psychoanalysis.

Johnston's work seeks to reinvigorate a materialist approach to philosophy, drawing heavily from psychoanalytic theory (especially the work of Jacques Lacan), Hegelian dialectics, and contemporary neuroscience. He is a staunch advocate for a renewed form of materialism capable of addressing the complexities of subjectivity, consciousness, and the social world. He critiques both idealist and overly simplistic, reductionist materialist positions.

Johnston's philosophical projects can be summarized as attempts to:

• Reconcile psychoanalysis with materialism: Johnston rejects interpretations of Lacan that emphasize the purely symbolic or linguistic nature of the unconscious. Instead, he argues that the unconscious is fundamentally material, embodied, and embedded in neurophysiological processes. He aims to integrate psychoanalytic insights with a scientifically informed understanding of the brain.

• Reconstruct dialectical materialism: He advocates for a contemporary version of dialectical materialism that is informed by psychoanalysis, neuroscience, and a nuanced understanding of ideology. This reconstructed materialism emphasizes the inherent contradictions and antagonisms within reality, rejecting deterministic or teleological accounts of historical development.

• Develop a negative ontology: Inspired by Hegel and Žižek, Johnston proposes a negative ontology that prioritizes lack, negativity, and the Real over positive being. This ontology contends that reality is fundamentally incomplete, contradictory, and haunted by an insurmountable gap or void.

Johnston has authored numerous books, including Time Driven: Metapsychology and the Splitting of the Drive, Žižek's Ontology: A Transcendental Materialist Theory of Subjectivity, Badiou, Žižek, and Political Transformations: The Cadence of Change, and Prolegomena to Any Future Materialism, Volume One: The Substance of Things Not Seen. He is currently Professor of Philosophy at the University of New Mexico. His work has significantly contributed to contemporary debates in philosophy, psychoanalysis, and critical theory.