Power without Power: Malabou on Derrida's Economy of Domination

This paper discusses Catherine Malabou's critique of Jacques Derrida's economy of domination. The central concern that emerges from this discussion is the deconstruction of an isomorphism between power and domination that, according to Malabou's reading, is not fully, or at least not clearly, achieved in Derrida's work. The first part of this article describes the chain of possible substitutions through which the word power acquires meaning in Derrida's work, one that places nonpower at the heart of power and one that gives central importance to Freud's Bemächtigungstrieb. The second part of the article offers a reception of the philosophical discussion on the deconstruction of the relationship between power and domination. First, Malabou's critique of the quasi-transcendental status of mastery in Derrida's reading of Freud is considered, from which it follows that in Derrida's deconstruction there is no power beyond domination. Secondly, alternative readings are presented that offer different insights into the possibility of other experiences of power in Derrida's work that are not reducible to domination, and more so, other experiences of power that subvert predetermined authoritarian and cruel sovereignties. In the concluding section, by contrasting these different readings of Derrida's texts on power, the possible relations between Malabou's insightful notion of the non-governable and Derrida's notion of nonpower in relation to experiences of power detached from domination are discussed.