INTRODUCTION

MODERNITY – radically alters the nature of day-to-day social life

Institutional level: reflexivity

- distinctive feature: high connection between

extensionality = globalizing influences

intentionality = personal dispositions

- The profound processes of reorganization of time&space + expansion of

disembedding mechanisms act to transform content and nature of day to
day social life

- Post traditional order DOUBT = feature of modern, critical reason –

HYPOTHESES

- Circumstances of uncertainty; RISK and TRUST = protection and medium of

interaction with abstract systems

RISK CULTURE in the lay actors and technical specialists organize the social
world

 reduces certain risks YET INTRODUCES NEW RISK parameters

 “high consequence risks” (risk of massive destruction, ecological

catastrophes, collapse of global economic mechanisms, rise of
totalitarian superstate

- lifestyle & the negotiation of lifestyle -> diversity = also DECISIONS &
COURSES OF ACTION

Produces difference, exclusion , marginalization

Personal meaninglessness – fundamental psychic problem in terms of moral

questions with no answers

Existential isolation from others

HIGH MODERNITY

Second chances: mourning – from the loss of shared pleasures and experiences
+ abandoning hope in the (marriage) relationships

Affects the “children of divorce” -> reconciliation fantasy (for the parents to get
back together again)
 Danger and opportunity – much to be gained but new dangers to be faced (ex.
anxiety in stepfamilies – BUT which could also help adaptive responses and
novel initiations

Pain & worry VS. COURAGE to grasp the new opportunities

General considerations

MODERNITY ~ roughly 1) “industrialized world” – institutions and modes of

behavior; social relationships

2) capitalism – system of COMMODITY production involving

product market and labor commodities

Surveillance: visible (Foucault) VS. use of information to coordinate social actions

NATION-STATE = specific forms of territoriality and surveillance + effective

control regarding means of violence

Modern institutions discontinuous with pre-modern ways of life -> extreme

dynamicism

3 explaining elements:

 1) Separation of time & space

DEF. = the condition for the articulation of social relations across wide spans of
time-space, up to and including global systems

Prime expression: mechanical CLOCK VS. “emptying” + global timezones

no place reference BUT “when” connected “where” SYSTEM; standard past and
universal future

 2) Disembedding of social institutions (mechanisms)

DEF. = abstract systems that separate interaction from particularities of locales

 Symbolic tokens: MONEY as media for interexchange(transactions can take

place in 2 very different places of the world, without the parties having to see
each other or be present + standard value

- We can BUY relative security

 Expert systems: [technical] information only for the specially trained (e.g.
everyone uses the phone but only a few know how it works, how it’s built etc)
 - These involve trust = generally an attitude (connected to psychological
SECURITY) but we CAN cognitively decide to trust as well, which presumes a
leap of commitment

 3) Intrinsic REFLEXIVITY

DEF. = the regularized use of knowledge about circumstances of social life as a

constitutive element in its organization and transformation

- Science depends on the methodological principle of doubt – open to revision

and to the possibility to eventually become discarded

The local, the global and the transformation of day-to-day life

GLOBALISATION= <DEF> the intersection of presence and absence, social events

“at distance” – local contextualities

- nobody can “opt out” -> e.g. global risks: nuclear war, ecological catastrophe

Taken for granted confidence (e.g. in suppliers of natural food – they would supply
what they said)

+ skepticism (e.g. regarding alternative medicine)

- antagonism; transfer of faith

Mediation: socialization; LANGUAGE permits reenactment of social practices

across generations + differences between past-present-future “time machine” (L.
Strauss)

Printed text (electronic signal) at the core of Modernity

MASS PRINTED MEDIA + telegraph

• Only events close at hand and recent

• News in form of “geographic bundling”

- as modalities of reorganizing time & space; SIMILARITIES: collage effect +

intrusion of distant events

- humankind becomes “we” – facing problems -> no others

High modernity and existential parameters

- double edged: science and technology – benefits and dangers

- to accept. Society of RISK = no aspect predestined, all open to contingent
happenings

= living with a CALCULATIVE ATTITUDE to the open possibilities of

positive/negative action

“futures” are organized in the present reflexively vs. passive expectation

(pg. 29) SPECIALISATION

(Pg. 80) 3.2. Lifestyles and life plans

CHOICE is relatively set but little help to choose ; channel-ordering (tradition, habit)

(“adopted”) LIFESTYLE = more or less integrated set of ROUTINISED (dress,

eating, etc.) practices we embrace because they give material form to a particular
narrative of self-id

- involves a cluster of habits and orientations -> certain unity

Plurality of choice-factors

Living in post-traditional order

Pluralisation of lifeworlds VS. segmentation (specific

milieux of action

Beliefs: REASON – doubt

Mediated experience

Lifestyle choices from institutional settings which help shape their actions

Relations with others – TRANSFORMATION OF INTIMACY

(next subchapter
 SELF-IDENTITY – emergence of new mechanisms that
are separated by & shaped by institutions

= reflexively organized endavour, life PLANNING

- Self is NOT a PASSIVE entity -> contribute to social influences – GLOBAL in

consequences and implications

- Mediated experience influences self ID + organization of social relations

* SELF DEVELOPMENT with the dev. Of mass (electronic) communication

Inequalities (gender, ethnic) = differentiated access to forms of self actualization,

empowerment + suppression

Transformation of intimacy =emergence of PURE RELATIONSHIPS

(~relationships which exist solely for the rewards they can deliver, external
criteria dissolved)

 This presupposes COMMITMENT = particular species of trust, both to the

relationship AND the person

Integral (integrity) DEMANDS for intimacy in

trust

Reskilling = reacquisition of knowledge and skills

Attitudes: acceptance, skepticism, rejection and withdrawal coexist in the social

sphere + reverence and reserve, approval and disquiet, empathy and antipathy

Bodily development and lifestyle = body – phenomenon of choices and options

SEQUESTRATION (of experience) – day 2 day social life tends to be separated

from “original” nature

Mad, criminal, seriously ill

“Sexuality “ replacing “eroticism” -> behind the scenes, HIDDEN AWAY

Repression of (Freud) guilt VS. SHAME (institutional repression)

- “second chances” – “new sense of identity” ~ finding oneself

- self-ID forms a trajectory across different institutional settings over “life cycle”
[‘HOW shall I live?’s DAY to day decisions

WHY modernity and personal identity?

 - Altered self clearly VS. reflexively explored and constructed “new sense of
self”

- Abstract systems -> early socialization advice and instruction of EXPERTS VS.
direct initiation

- Therapy ~ unnegative fashion: impersonal organizations VS. small

communities and tradition (lacking psychological support and security)

= SECULAR version of confession

Chapter 2 The SELF: Ontological security &

existential anxiety
~ ontological security is to have answers

- Overall picture of the psychological make-up: stratification model

Being human = everyone knows WHAT one is doing and WHY = discursive
interpretation (ableness

Ontological security & trust (page 37) practical consciousness is “non-conscious”

VS. unconscious -> reflexive monitoring of our actions

= cognitive-emotive anchor of “ontological security” characteristic for large

segments of human action

- even the most simple query demands the BRACKETING of an infinite number of
possibilities open

- to live our lives we take FOR GRANTED many things including existential issues
(philosophers/individual CRISIS)

“FAITH” in the coherence of everyday life (e.g. with the baby hoping the
parent will return when gone for a while)

Basic trust = the core of “hope” and origin of “the courage to be”

Habit & routine (against anxiety*)

* anxiety = general, no object; an unconsciously organized state of fear – can

generate hostilities because of the feeling of pain or helplessness

not automatic! Is constitutive of emotional acceptance of the reality of the

external world; “NOT-ME separation” for babies; Constant vigilance “to go on” ;
awareness of separate IDs
“going on being” has to be “called into existence” by the nurturing environment ->
routine=formed framework

Child trust – “emotional inoculation”

Generates invulnerability which blocks off anxiety – in favor of attitude “hope”

A terrible accident however pulls apart the protective cocoon VS. feeling of relative
invulnerability

CREATIVITY – innovation ~ as routine phenomenon = sense of worth

- to know the MEANING means able to use the information

Civic indifference = everyone is worthy of respect – e.g. glance on the street ~ the
other is not a threat

BODY -> part of an action system

EXISTENTIAL QUESTIONS concern basic parameters of human life

Existence and being = nature of existence, identity of objects and events

Finitude and human life = existential contradiction; humans (are of) BUT set
apart from nature as sentient reflexive creatures

Experience of others = HOW we interpret the traits and actions of others -> trust
and faith in them equally implicated

CONTINUITY of self ID = persistence of feelings of personhood in a continuous

self and body

- “conscious of” in the term self consciousness: NOT something given but HAS
TO BE CREATED REFLEXIVELY AND ROUTINELY

“me” = the SOCIAL identity the “I” becomes conscious of

SELF ID = the self as reflexively understood by the person in terms of their

biography

~ personhood (capacity to use “I”)

VS. fractured, disabled self ID typical of insecure individuals who

o lack feeling of biographical continuity! discontinuity in

temporal experience
 o (are) obsessively preoccupied with risks; “inner deadness” &
no self regard

Body & self – ease in any given situation presumes long-term experience;
everything (even the most banal current routines) was an EFFORT

(Foucault) “disciplinary mechanisms produce docile bodies

“false self” – body as object, manipulated from behind; DISEMBODIMENT (real. Or

nazi-suffering)

Regimes =<DEF> modes of providing food and other basic organic

necessities – not on demand but periodically => e.g. food regimes, sexual,
dress = external form to narratives of self ID

= modes of self-discipline working on the principles of deprivation-indulgence;

personal habits organized after social conventions or dispositions –rel. values +
psychological disorders

Way to Dress – convention to basic aspects of the self id -> conceal/reveal

GENDER is “done”

• Work vs. extension of biological sexual difference

• Chronic monitoring of the body and bodily gestures

THERE IS NO single body trait that separates ALL men from ALL women

Motivations: motives are the wellsprings of action

- Reasons are intrinsic parts of the reflexive monitoring of action

- All competent agents “keep in touch” reproducing that behavior

- Many routines are just simply carried on -> not motivated

In terms of basic security system ~ linked to early TRUST relations

GUILT VS. SHAME

Guilt = anxiety produced by fear of transgression

Shame is related to bodily exposure

Characteristics of guilt
 • Derives from feelings of wrong-doing

• Involve cumulative processes

• Exposure of transgressions

• Concern about the violation of codes -> body

• TRUST: absence of -> betrayal/disloyalty

• Surmounting of guilt -> moral uprightness

Characteristics of shame

o Integrity of the self

o Hidden traits that compromise narrative of self Id

o Body in relation to mechanisms of self Id

o Feeling that one is inadequate

o TRUST means being “known to the other”

o Transcending the shame -> secure self ID

Chapter 3. Trajectory of self

Self-therapy: self realization; What to do? How to act? Who to be?

“not done, happen” – experience: systematic reflection about the course of life’s
development

Self OBSERVATION – “new moment” of life higher awareness condition of

PLANNING ahead => inner wishes

- Journal (for self ~ autobiography to LEARN from previous experiences)

Dialogue with time.. death (fear or avoidance) -> corrective intervention in

the past

1) REFLEXIVE – we make ourselves

2) trajectory of development from past -> future

3) continuous consciously asked questions (e.g. How can I change?)

4) narrative

5) self reflexivity

6)self actualization (opportunity and risk)

(page 78) novel hazards as necessary breaking from patterns – recover or repeat

- running consciously entertained risks to grasp the new opportunities which

personal crisis opens up

3.3. PURE RELATIONSHIPS (theory and practice)

 ROMANTIC LOVE – emotional satisfaction / solely the rewards; reciprocity in

closeness

 Pure = only for what it can bring; both sides wanting REAL love (intrinsic
travails of pure relation

 Reflexively ORGANIZED “everything ok?” – how am I -> rewards – pain

 COMMITMENT recognizing the tensions STILL WILLING to take a chance

Vs. inertial drag BUY TIME – provide emotional support guaranteed to persist
while perturbation

Sentiments of love do not in and of themselves generate commitment – nor

do they authorize it

 Intimacy – privacy makes possible the psychic satisfaction intimacy offers

Vs. “get by” relationships

 Mutual TRUST – worked at! = won eventually (both trusted+trust-worthy)

 Shared histories

3.4. The body = object, source of feelings of well-being and pleasure / illness and
strains

not just “possess” – action system, mode of praxis – coherent sense of self ID

- “dress” vs. “uniform” ; demeanour -> multiple selves with no inner care of self id
3.5. Anorexia nervosa – association between dieting and changing bodily
appearance values

- distinctive self-id -> cultivation of bodily regimes ~ reflexively influence self

projection

Casualty and responsibility = A striving for security

 Pathology of reflexive self control -> shame anxiety

 As controlled and progressive phenomenon

Deliberate ascetism – ruthless inner dedication

“alienness” of the body – self can’t feel at home