York University Professor Ilan Kapoor is changing the way we understand the global economy by using psychoanalytic theory to explore areas like neoliberalism, capitalism and international development.
His innovative approach combines psychoanalytic insights with economic and political analysis, providing fresh perspectives on global power structures and societal dynamics.
By using psychoanalysis to decode these concepts, Kapoor offers an understanding of why people, institutions and countries do what they do with finance and power.
Ilan Kapoor
"My work aims to reveal the unconscious dimensions of global power structures," says Kapoor, a professor at York's Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change. "Understanding this is crucial for developing more effective strategies to address issues like inequality, environmental degradation and social justice."
"Pyschoanalysis focuses on unconscious desire, which obeys a logic not of good sense, rationality and self-interest, but rather excess and irrationality," says Kapoor. "And, it is this insatiability of human desire that helps explain the relentlessness of capital accumulation and profit maximization today. It helps us understand such contemporary phenomena as overconsumption, excessive waste and environmental destruction to the point of imperiling not only accumulation but life itself."
Kapoor's work has caught the attention of the academic world, with several prestigious journals dedicating special forums to his research.
In March 2025, the Canadian Journal of Development Studies (CJDS) featured a special forum on Kapoor's 2024 book, Rethinking Development Politics, co-authored with Gavin Fridell. This forum, the first of its kind for the journal, underscores the innovative nature of Kapoor's psychoanalytic research and highlights this work as a driver of innovation in the field of development theory and practice.
This coming summer, the Brazil-based journal Contexto Internacional: Journal of Global Connections will publish a forum on Kapoor's 2020 book, Confronting Desire: Psychoanalysis and International Development. This forum will feature six commentaries on the book and a response by Kapoor, highlighting the ongoing relevance and influence of his research.
He has also earned praise for his book Global Libidinal Economy - the first book to share research that applies psychoanalytic insights to global political economy, covering topics such as trade, financialization, ecology, production and consumption.
In December 2024, the same book was the subject of a published symposium in Rethinking Marxism, which highlighted the book's potential to open new avenues for research in areas like the history of global capitalism, elite development theory and alternatives to capitalism. The book was recognized again in April 2024, when Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory held a special forum that featured critical essays commending his research.
Kapoor's pioneering work not only challenges conventional wisdom but also inspires new thinking about global issues.
His future research aims to examine how the excess and irrationality of unconscious desire explains the rise of populism around the world, including the "America-first" trade and economic agenda of the Trump regime in the U.S.
Reflecting on the broader impact of his research, Kapoor says, "The positive reception of this research by esteemed scholars and journals underscores its relevance and potential to reshape academic and political debates. It is gratifying to see this interdisciplinary approach being recognized as a valuable contribution to the field."
This story was originally featured in YFile, York University's community newsletter.
