This introductory chapter outlines dominant views on social change: the restorative approach, which seeks to eliminate alienation, and power-centred models, which reduce oppression to power dynamics. Against both tendencies, I propose a psychoanalytic account of the desire for social change in terms of emancipatory identifications. This approach highlights the productive role of negativity and structural alienation in shaping our desire. Embracing social change thus becomes an internally divided experience with its own libidinal economy. I interpret the estallido as a call to experience the end of neoliberalism, while treating the latter as a ‘cherished obstacle’—a psychic reality that is both oppressive and enabling. To grasp this contradictory dimension of the desire for social change, we must challenge the primacy of the restorative approach and loosen the grip of power-centred models.