[p2p-research] the failure of self, post=68

[Michel Bauwens]

via
http://potlatch.typepad.com/weblog/2010/12/is-steve-hilton-depressed.html

I recently read Alain Ehrenberg's<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_Ehrenberg>
*The Weariness of the Self: Diagnosing the History of Depression in the
Contemporary Age*<http://www.amazon.co.uk/Weariness-Self-Diagnosing-Depression-Contemporary/dp/0773536256>,
which is the best piece of contemporary sociology I've read in some time.
Ehrenberg explains his thesis as follows:

*Depression began its ascent [in the 1960s] when the disciplinary model for
behaviours, the rules of authority and observance of taboos that gave social
classes as well as both sexes a specific destiny, broke against norms that
invited us to undertake personal initiative by enjoining us to be ourselves.
These new norms brought with them a sense that the responsibility for our
existence lies not only within us but also within the collective between-us.
I try here to demonstrate that depression is the opposite of this paradigm.
Depression presents itself as an illness of responsibility in which the
dominant feeling is that of failure. The depressed individual is unable to
measure up; he is tired of having to become himself.*

Where psychoanalysis was invented to tackle a specific problem of conflict
within the self - guilt, shame, repression, neurosis - the defining malaise
of post-68 culture is less of conflict, and more of deflation and
performance anxiety. The post-68 individual has no external benchmark of
what a good life should look like, because they've been enjoined to define
this for themselves. The result is a paradoxical combination of narcissism
and depression, whereby the individual projects an omnipotent ideal of who
they truly are, but (like any ideal) one which their actions are never able
to match. The result is an experience of collapse.

It's with this in mind that I pose the question: is Steve Hilton suffering
from depressive narcissism? Tony Blair had measures that he set out to be
judged by, largely oriented around public service reform, social liberalism
and economic competitiveness. Yes, he projected a compulsive 'modernisation'
ideal, but really this was just the Thatcherite commitment to making public
life a bit more business-like. Labour's famous 'pledge card' looks quaint -
and mentally contented - in comparison to these apparent Maoists. Hilton's
comments smack of an unattainable ego ideal. How can *everything* possibly
change?

Ehrenberg's book ends with the sad recognition that Prozac has prevented
neo-liberal society from truly confronting its dominant pathology.
Depression lacks any clear definition; it simply means the experience of
inadequacy, or alternatively, anything that can be treated with
anti-depressants. A psychoanalytic or political critique of contemporary
neo-liberal narcissism would challenge the dominance of ego ideals over
individuals and society, reject the Seb Coes, the endless testing of
children and morality of Premiership footballers. Ironically, to do so might
be in the best tradition of conservatism.


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