The ego is not the master in its own house." And: "Where It was shall I be." Those two of Freud's best-known epigrams define the forcefield not only of Freud's thinking, as Joel Whitebook states, but, as I argue in this article, that of... more
The ego is not the master in its own house." And: "Where It was shall I be." Those two of Freud's best-known epigrams define the forcefield not only of Freud's thinking, as Joel Whitebook states, but, as I argue in this article, that of Alfred Lorenzer, the most important theorist of the psychosocial in late 20 th-century Germany too. In Lorenzer's case, this forcefield can be found in the ways his works develop two contrasting conceptions of the unconscious, one pertaining to the individual, and one to the sociocultural level of analysis, which in turn suggest two distinct methodological approaches, a psychoanalytic and cultural-analytic one, to trace them with. While, in his metatheoretical works of the 1970s, Lorenzer conceives of the aim of clinical psychoanalysis to bring unconscious and repressed meanings back "into agreement with common sense", this idea of reconstruction and reparation becomes difficult to uphold in the cultural analytic works of the 1980s. In this phase, Lorenzer develops a conception of the unconscious in language that comes close to poststructuralist positions. This conception holds that there are parts of the ego that, albeit culturally formative, cannot ever be brought into agreement with existing notions of common sense. In this chapter I first trace the theoretical foundations of the two versions of Lorenzer's method of scenic understanding so as to then demonstrate how his cultural analytic practice tends to fall back onto the reparative position that his later theorizing rules out. I address the resulting contradiction by developing a 'third' methodological position that holds on to both the reparative and poststructuralist orientations in Lorenzer's oeuvre. Borrowing from Simon Critchley's writings on ethics and the comic, I propose a practice of Arrested Hermeneutics, in which "we identify with that which refuses identification" and, at the same time, experience ourselves as comically inadequate to this task.
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Focusing on the case of recommendations on the video streaming platform YouTube, this article revisits questions of media addiction and addictive media that continue to trouble research in the field. Based on a close reading of... more
Focusing on the case of recommendations on the video streaming platform YouTube, this article revisits questions of media addiction and addictive media that continue to trouble research in the field. Based on a close reading of Google/YouTube’s engineering papers, this paper argues that the platform’s recommender system — the machine learning system responsible for the personalisation and customisation of what videos users are offered — has been designed to function as a feeding tube and a precarious holding environment, thus corroborating widespread critiques about this system’s addictive — oral — strategies of user retention. Subsequently, this article discusses how the platform’s more recent promise of “responsible recommendations” has so far been articulated in the engineering papers. Specifically, this promise has taken the form of a fetishist structure that endorses responsibility but not at the expense of the time users spend watching. This structure is best captured in the proverbial Have your cake and eat it too.
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This commentary draws critical attention to the ongoing commodification of trust in policy and scholarly discourses of artificial intelligence (AI) and society. Based on an assessment of publications discussing the implementation of AI in... more
This commentary draws critical attention to the ongoing commodification of trust in policy and scholarly discourses of artificial intelligence (AI) and society. Based on an assessment of publications discussing the implementation of AI in governmental and private services, our findings indicate that this discursive trend towards commodification is driven by the need for a trusting population of service users to harvest data at scale and leads to the discursive construction of trust as an essential good on a par with data as raw material. This discursive commodification is marked by a decreasing emphasis on trust understood as the expected reliability of a trusted agent, and increased emphasis on instrumental and extractive framings of trust as a resource. This tendency, we argue, does an ultimate disservice to developers, users, and systems alike, insofar as it obscures the subtle mechanisms through which trust in AI systems might be built, making it less likely that it will be.
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By reviewing the acclaimed film scholar Vivian Sobchack’s existential phenomenological approach to film interpretation against the background of Alfred Lorenzer’s depth-hermeneutic cultural analysis – a psychoanalytically oriented... more
By reviewing the acclaimed film scholar Vivian Sobchack’s existential phenomenological approach to film interpretation against the background of Alfred Lorenzer’s depth-hermeneutic cultural analysis – a psychoanalytically oriented approach – this paper will not only unfold a critical social dimension in Sobchack’s concern of film and film critique, but also work out the points of contact in the two approaches. My attempt to understand and criticize Sobchack through Lorenzer thus aims first and foremost at cross-fertilization of the fields of psychoanalytically and phenomenologically oriented research. Bringing the central aspects of Lorenzer’s conception of depth hermeneutic face to face with parallel lines of thought in Sobchack’s “What my fingers knew – The Cinesthetic Subject, or Vision in the Flesh” – one of her central methodological statements –, I will unfold how this critical social dimension has been present in her methodological conception all along. In closely following S...
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Under the title Digital Media, Psychoanalysis and the Subject, this special issue of CM: Communication and Media seeks to reassess and reinvigorate psychoanalytic thinking in media and communication studies. We undertake this reassessment... more
Under the title Digital Media, Psychoanalysis and the Subject, this special issue of CM: Communication and Media seeks to reassess and reinvigorate psychoanalytic thinking in media and communication studies. We undertake this reassessment with a particular focus on the question of what psychoanalytic concepts, theories as well as modes of inquiry can contribute to the study of digital media. Overlooking the field of media and communication studies, we argue that psychoanalysis offers a reservoir of conceptual and methodological tools that has not been sufficiently tapped. In particular, psychoanalytic perspectives offer a heightened concern and sensibility for the unconscious, i.e. the element in human relating and relatedness that criss-crosses and mars our best laid plans and reasonable predictions. This introduction provides an insight into psychoanalysis as a discipline, indicates the ways in which it has been adopted in media research in general and research into digital media ...
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Em meados de maio de 2020, quando eu me dispus a tentar contato via e-mail e da maneira mais formal possível com o professor alemão Steffen Krüger, usei “Dr. Krüger” o tempo todo na mensagem e tentei, em vão, chegar o mais próximo do que... more
Em meados de maio de 2020, quando eu me dispus a tentar contato via e-mail e da maneira mais formal possível com o professor alemão Steffen Krüger, usei “Dr. Krüger” o tempo todo na mensagem e tentei, em vão, chegar o mais próximo do que seria passar a imagem de um acadêmico sem informalidades, quase “frio” e interessado somente na vida acadêmica do meu entrevistado. Jamais imaginaria o quão singular é a trajetória da pessoa por trás dessa figura tão acessível e tão gentil que, muito brevemente, desmontou todo o cenário de formalidade que tentei construir tão ingenuamente. Ou seja, tentei conhecer Dr. Krüger e acabei conhecendo mais: descobri Steffen. Em nosso bate-papo, entendi que o seu caminhar pelo mundo acadêmico (e, curiosamente, também na cena musical indie) me fez refletir em como os trajetos que pensamos já estar definidos para nossa vida profissional nem sempre são os que primeiro nos acenam como indiscutivelmente verdadeiros e inquestionáveis.Mais do que compreender como ...
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This article focuses on the prominence of dirt and excrements in online male subcultures. It offers an understanding of both the computer nerd cultures of the 4chan forum and Incel (acronym for “Involuntary celibate”) forums that is... more
This article focuses on the prominence of dirt and excrements in online male subcultures. It offers an understanding of both the computer nerd cultures of the 4chan forum and Incel (acronym for “Involuntary celibate”) forums that is grounded in their displays of anal sexuality. The article traces the development of this sexuality from the sadistic-aggressive acts of discharge characteristic of 4chan to the masochistic displays of self-deprecation in Incel forums. Whereas the former serve to draw boundaries between the subcultural sphere and that of the cultural mainstream, the latter take the provocative performance of sexual immaturity towards a point of catastrophic loss of control. These performances have political implications, in which the fantasy of being out of control in particular moves Incel culture close to right extremism in that, it is argued, it anticipates a fatalistic act of vengeance against those who are given the blame for one’s castrated state. It is in this respect, I argue, that Incel culture must be seen as an extreme variation of online male subcultures.
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Since its launch in late 2015, the Norwegian web-series Skam ( Shame), produced by public broadcaster NRK, has become one of the most notable successes in Norwegian television history, both in terms of ratings and critical acclaim. A... more
Since its launch in late 2015, the Norwegian web-series Skam ( Shame), produced by public broadcaster NRK, has become one of the most notable successes in Norwegian television history, both in terms of ratings and critical acclaim. A high-school web-series about teenagers, mostly girls, coming of age in the Norwegian capital of Oslo, the series not only depicts young people in their everyday digital-media use but also reaches its audience through these same media and in a variety of formats extending far beyond video clips. Its success, we argue, is significantly tied to its multimedial form and distribution. We unpack the show’s sociocultural potential by analyzing its various outputs (video clips, screen grabs of the characters’ messenger chats, and updates from their Instagram accounts), as well as the audience’s/users’ responses to these in the form of comments to the web page. We argue that the show functions as a “transitional object” (per Winnicott) for its teen audiences, pr...
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Jacques Lacan’s attack on ego psychology became specifically identified with his polemics against Ernst Kris (1900–1957), a Viennese-born analyst of the ego-psychological tradition, who from 1940 until his death practiced in the United... more
Jacques Lacan’s attack on ego psychology became specifically
identified with his polemics against Ernst Kris (1900–1957),
a Viennese-born analyst of the ego-psychological tradition,
who from 1940 until his death practiced in the United States.
It was particularly Kris’s 1951 Psychoanalytic Quarterly article,
“Ego Psychology and Interpretation in Psychoanalytic Theory”
(1951/1975) that kept irritating—and fascinating—Lacan. In
that article, Lacan (1901–1981) came to find a paradigmatic
example of ego-psychological treatment, an example instrumental
in making his case against this most influential direction in
psychoanalysis after the Second World War.
identified with his polemics against Ernst Kris (1900–1957),
a Viennese-born analyst of the ego-psychological tradition,
who from 1940 until his death practiced in the United States.
It was particularly Kris’s 1951 Psychoanalytic Quarterly article,
“Ego Psychology and Interpretation in Psychoanalytic Theory”
(1951/1975) that kept irritating—and fascinating—Lacan. In
that article, Lacan (1901–1981) came to find a paradigmatic
example of ego-psychological treatment, an example instrumental
in making his case against this most influential direction in
psychoanalysis after the Second World War.
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Written with Steffen Krüger. At the core of this paper is a psychosocial inquiry into the Marxist concept of alienation and its applications to the field of digital labour. Following a brief review of different theoretical works on... more
Written with Steffen Krüger.
At the core of this paper is a psychosocial inquiry into the Marxist concept of alienation and its applications to the field of digital labour. Following a brief review of different theoretical works on alienation, it looks into its recent conceptualisations and applications to the study of online social networking sites. Finally, the authors offer suggestions on how to extend and render more complex these recent approaches through in-depth analyses of Facebook posts that exemplify how alienation is experienced, articulated, and expressed online. For this perspective, the article draws on Rahel Jaeggi’s (2005) reassessment of alienation, as well as the depth-hermeneutic method of “scenic understanding” developed by Alfred Lorenzer (e.g. 1970; 1986).
At the core of this paper is a psychosocial inquiry into the Marxist concept of alienation and its applications to the field of digital labour. Following a brief review of different theoretical works on alienation, it looks into its recent conceptualisations and applications to the study of online social networking sites. Finally, the authors offer suggestions on how to extend and render more complex these recent approaches through in-depth analyses of Facebook posts that exemplify how alienation is experienced, articulated, and expressed online. For this perspective, the article draws on Rahel Jaeggi’s (2005) reassessment of alienation, as well as the depth-hermeneutic method of “scenic understanding” developed by Alfred Lorenzer (e.g. 1970; 1986).
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Drawing on Isabel Millar and Sherry Turkle's works on AI, I analyse Maria Schrader's (2021) film I'm Your Man.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
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Insurance companies are increasingly harnessing self-tracking data to innovate and create new health and life insurance schemes. These schemes are often hailed as social innovations, and a major growth opportunity for the industry.... more
Insurance companies are increasingly harnessing self-tracking data to innovate and create new health and life insurance schemes. These schemes are often hailed as social innovations, and a major growth opportunity for the industry. Clients are invited to track and measure their health behaviour, fitness habits and vital functions. The data produced is submitted directly to the insurer and used for risk assessment. Good health and behaviour are rewarded; while poor health and behaviour relegate the insured to a lower ‘health status’. We undertake a discourse analysis of published materials relating to these innovations to identify the cultural and social changes they introduce. We review four categories of publications identified through a focused literature review. These include (a) marketing and PR material (n=41) (b) journalistic articles (n=37), (c) industry publications (n=14), and (d) academic articles (n=25). Based on our analysis, we argue that these innovations introduce a s...
Dieser Artikel beleuchtet Variationen selbststigmatisierender und zugleich selbstkonstituierender Akte männlicher Internet-Subkulturen. Allen Akten gemeinsam ist ihre unbehagliche Nähe zu Schmutz und Fäkalien. Meine Analyse bewegt sich... more
Dieser Artikel beleuchtet Variationen selbststigmatisierender und zugleich selbstkonstituierender Akte männlicher Internet-Subkulturen. Allen Akten gemeinsam ist ihre unbehagliche Nähe zu Schmutz und Fäkalien. Meine Analyse bewegt sich systematisch von den ‚Computerfreak‘-Milieus der frühen 2000er Jahre, via den sogenannten ‚Pickup-Artists‘ (Frauenverführungskünstlern) und Online-Männerrechtsgruppen hin zu den Incels – der extremsten Variante dieser Subkulturen. Incel ist ein Akronym für „involuntary celibate“: unfreiwillig sexuell enthaltsam. Donald Meltzers Studie über den anal-masturbatorischen Charakter (1966) dient meiner Untersuchung als heuristische Folie. Meltzer zeichnet hier das Bild eines Charakters, der, durch äußere Entsagungen geprägt, auf der analen Stufe der Sexualentwicklung retardiert und eine masturbatorische Pseudo-Reife anstatt einer vollen Geschlechtsreife annimmt. Mit Meltzers Studie lässt sich die konstitutive Relevanz der analen Sexualität für die im Internet sich differenzierenden Maskulinitäten und deren ‚Frauen-Feind-Bilder‘ herausarbeiten. Vor ihrem Hintergrund lässt sich beobachten, wie Computerfreak-Milieus im Netz ironisch mit dem Stigma der analen Vorgeschlechtlichkeit spielen, die Männerrechts- und Incelgruppen jedoch das Spielerische im Umgang mit diesem Stigma weitestgehend verloren und eine (auto)aggressive Identifikation mit ihm entwickelt haben. Während Frauen vermittels projektiver Mechanismen zu den Schuldigen dieser Selbststigmatisierung gemacht werden, argumentiere ich, dass die Ursachen für die Erfahrung der Impotenz aufseiten der Männer in sozialen Verhältnissen gesucht werden müssen.
English abstract/ summary:
This article sheds light on variations of self-stigmatising and, at the same time, self-constitutive acts in male subcultures on the Internet. These acts share an uneasy proximity to dirt and faeces. My analysis moves systematically from the nerd and geek milieus of the early 2000s, via the so-called ‚pickup artists‘ and men’s rights groups to the Incels – the most extreme variation of these subcultures. Incel is an acronym for „involuntary celibate“. Donald Meltzer’s study of the anal-masturbatory character (1966) serves the analysis as a heuristic device. Meltzer sketches the image of a character, who – due to outside pressures – becomes stuck at the anal level of sexual development and takes on a masturbatory pseudo-maturity instead of a fully developed, phallic one. With the help of Meltzer’s study one can work out the central relevance of anal sexuality for the masculinities that differentiate themselves online as well as their conception of woman as the enemy image. Whereas one can see how nerd cultures have been playing with the stigma of anal sexuality in ironic ways, this playfulness becomes lost in the Incel and men’s rights groups where it is replaced by an (auto)aggressive mode of identification with anal-masturbatory characteristics. While women are ultimately being made the culprits of male self-stigmatisation through projective means, I argue that the causes for the men’s experience of impotence must be located in social conditions.
English abstract/ summary:
This article sheds light on variations of self-stigmatising and, at the same time, self-constitutive acts in male subcultures on the Internet. These acts share an uneasy proximity to dirt and faeces. My analysis moves systematically from the nerd and geek milieus of the early 2000s, via the so-called ‚pickup artists‘ and men’s rights groups to the Incels – the most extreme variation of these subcultures. Incel is an acronym for „involuntary celibate“. Donald Meltzer’s study of the anal-masturbatory character (1966) serves the analysis as a heuristic device. Meltzer sketches the image of a character, who – due to outside pressures – becomes stuck at the anal level of sexual development and takes on a masturbatory pseudo-maturity instead of a fully developed, phallic one. With the help of Meltzer’s study one can work out the central relevance of anal sexuality for the masculinities that differentiate themselves online as well as their conception of woman as the enemy image. Whereas one can see how nerd cultures have been playing with the stigma of anal sexuality in ironic ways, this playfulness becomes lost in the Incel and men’s rights groups where it is replaced by an (auto)aggressive mode of identification with anal-masturbatory characteristics. While women are ultimately being made the culprits of male self-stigmatisation through projective means, I argue that the causes for the men’s experience of impotence must be located in social conditions.
Research Interests:
At the core of this paper is a psychosocial inquiry into the Marxist concept of alienation and its applications to the field of digital labour. Following a brief review of different theoretical works on alienation, it looks into its... more
At the core of this paper is a psychosocial inquiry into the Marxist concept of alienation and its applications to the field of digital labour. Following a brief review of different theoretical works on alienation, it looks into its recent conceptualisations and applications to the study of online social networking sites. Finally, the authors offer suggestions on how to extend and render more complex these recent approaches through in-depth analyses of Facebook posts that exemplify how alienation is experienced, articulated, and expressed online. For this perspective, the article draws on Rahel Jaeggi’s (2005) reassessment of alienation, as well as the depth-hermeneutic method of “scenic understanding” developed by Alfred Lorenzer (e.g. 1970; 1986).
Research Interests:
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Public discourse on Tinder depicts the dating app as marking the end of traditional – as well as healthy – notions of love and romance, permeating them with a logic of consumption and commodification. Our article offers a close reading of... more
Public discourse on Tinder depicts the dating app as marking the end of traditional – as well as healthy – notions of love and romance, permeating them with a logic of consumption and commodification. Our article offers a close reading of the Tinder user interface in order to inquire into how – and in how far – the contours of such commodity culture can be traced into the design and usage of the app. Guided by critical and Foucauldian theory, we indeed find strong objectifying tendencies built into the interface. However, these tendencies are riddled with contradictions and ambiguities. Thus, while the emphasis on the visual exacerbates pressures for users to meet bodily norms of beauty, it also reinvigorates embodied intuition and ‘gut feeling’, the loss of which has been critiqued in studies on more traditional forms of online dating. Furthermore, whereas the swipe gesture appears paradigmatic of a binary consume-and/or-discard attitude, Tinder’s monetising strategies indicate the users’ wish to amend and repair this attitude. Lastly, the aesthetics of the database feed a desire of ‘swiping on’ that is insatiable. However, building on existing research, we see the consequent flattening out of personal relations on Tinder to merely displace the longing for love and romance to a sphere beyond the app’s reach.
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At the core of this paper is a psychosocial inquiry into the Marxist concept of alienation and its applications to the field of digital labour. Following a brief review of different theoretical works on alienation, it looks into its... more
At the core of this paper is a psychosocial inquiry into the Marxist concept of alienation and its applications to the field of digital labour. Following a brief review of different theoretical works on alienation, it looks into its recent conceptualisations and applications to the study of online social networking sites. Finally, the authors offer suggestions on how to extend and render more complex these recent approaches through in-depth analyses of Facebook posts that exemplify how alienation is experienced, articulated, and expressed online. For this perspective, the article draws on Rahel Jaeggi’s (2005) reassessment of alienation, as well as the depth-hermeneutic method of “scenic understanding” developed by Alfred Lorenzer (e.g. 1970; 1986).
Research Interests:
This article focuses on the prominence of dirt and excrements in online male subcultures. It offers an understanding of both the computer nerd cultures of the 4chan forum and Incel (acronym for "Involuntary celibate") forums that is... more
This article focuses on the prominence of dirt and excrements in online male subcultures. It offers an understanding of both the computer nerd cultures of the 4chan forum and Incel (acronym for "Involuntary celibate") forums that is grounded in their displays of anal sexuality. The article traces the development of this sexuality from the sadistic-aggressive acts of discharge characteristic of 4chan to the masochistic displays of self-deprecation in Incel forums. Whereas the former serve to draw boundaries between the subcultural sphere and that of the cultural mainstream, the latter take the provocative performance of sexual immaturity towards the point of a catastrophic loss of control. These performances have political implications. Particularly the fantasy of being out of control moves Incel culture close to right extremism in that it anticipates a fatalistic act of vengeance against those who are given the blame for one's castrated state. It is in this respect that Incel culture must be seen as an extreme variation of these subcultures.
Research Interests:
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eflux #83 - open access
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Since its launch in late 2015, the Norwegian web-series Skam (Shame), produced by public broadcaster NRK, has become one of the most notable successes in Norwegian television history, both in terms of ratings and critical acclaim. A... more
Since its launch in late 2015, the Norwegian web-series Skam (Shame), produced by public broadcaster NRK, has become one of the most notable successes in Norwegian television history, both in terms of ratings and critical acclaim. A high-school web- series about teenagers, mostly girls, coming of age in the Norwegian capital of Oslo, the series not only depicts young people in their everyday digital-media use but also reaches its audience through these same media and in a variety of formats extending far beyond video clips. Its success, we argue, is significantly tied to its multimedial form and distribution. We unpack the show’s sociocultural potential by analyzing its various outputs (video clips, screen grabs of the characters’ messenger chats, and updates from their Instagram accounts), as well as the audience’s/users’ responses to these in the form of comments to the web page. We argue that the show functions as a “transitional object” (per Winnicott) for its teen audiences, providing them with a “potential space” (also from Winnicott) in which they can learn how to cope with the challenges of a media-saturated society.
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In this paper I compare approaches to studying the psychosocial, i.e. the mutual shaping of the psychic and social, developed in the UK (Lacanian and Kleinian approaches) with the German tradition of (in-)depth hermeneutics, developed by... more
In this paper I compare approaches to studying the psychosocial, i.e. the mutual shaping of the psychic and social, developed in the UK (Lacanian and Kleinian approaches) with the German tradition of (in-)depth hermeneutics, developed by Alfred Lorenzer, a psychoanalyst and sociologist, who decisively influenced 'applied' psychoanalytic studies in postwar Germany.
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The article contributes to the theory and study of affective labor with a reading of the Norwegian online memorial page min 22. juli (My 22nd of July) from a depth-hermeneutic perspective. The min 22. juli platform was introduced in July... more
The article contributes to the theory and study of affective labor with a reading of the Norwegian online memorial page min 22. juli (My 22nd of July) from a depth-hermeneutic perspective. The min 22. juli platform was introduced in July 2012, in the run-up to the first anniversary of the mass-murderous attacks in south-eastern Norway on July 22, 2011, the deadliest in Norwegian history since World War II. In an effort of public commemoration, the platform asked participants to recall and report on their spontaneous personal reactions to the news of the attacks. The article will focus on the emerging forms of interaction between users and platform. Reading both published and censored posts to the platform as symptomatic of the conflicts in user-platform relations, I will locate the main conflict between platform and users in the theme of affectedness itself. Since min 22. juli gave participants the double task of reporting affectively about their having been affected, affect itself became a constitutive, a-priori requirement for participating on the platform; consequently, a lack of affectedness in user responses became the platform’s central taboo.
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Under the title Digital Media, Psychoanalysis and the Subject, this special issue of CM: Communication and Media seeks to reassess and reinvigorate psychoanalytic thinking in media and communication studies. We undertake this reassessment... more
Under the title Digital Media, Psychoanalysis and the Subject, this special issue of CM: Communication and Media seeks to reassess and reinvigorate psychoanalytic thinking in media and communication studies. We undertake this reassessment with a particular focus on the question of what psychoanalytic concepts, theories as well as modes of inquiry can contribute to the study of digital media. Overlooking the field of media and communication studies, we argue that psychoanalysis offers a reservoir of conceptual and methodological tools that has not been sufficiently tapped. In particular, psychoanalytic perspectives offer a heightened concern and sensibility for the unconscious, i.e. the element in human relating and relatedness that criss-crosses and mars our best laid plans and reasonable predictions. This introduction provides an insight into psychoanalysis as a discipline, indicates the ways in which it has been adopted in media research in general and research into digital media in particular and, ultimately, points to its future potential to contribute to the field.
Research Interests:
Ever since going mainstream in the 2000s, user comments on online news platforms have been held in relatively low esteem. Frequently, this has been echoed in academic research by a tendency to focus exclusively on user interactions and,... more
Ever since going mainstream in the 2000s, user comments on online news platforms have been held in relatively low esteem. Frequently, this has been echoed in academic research by a tendency to focus exclusively on user interactions and, thereby, losing sight of the role of the platform itself. Based on a symptomatic reading of user pseudonyms in discussion threads on two European populist news platforms, this article works out the manifold ways in which users and their interactions are closely related to the platforms on which these interactions take place, reframing online commenting – as well as critiques thereof (academic or otherwise) – through a reconceptualization of the user-platform relationship. From this perspective, then, users alone cannot be held responsible for a climate that is irreconcilable with ideals of deliberation. Instead, the relationship between users and platforms emerges as a simultaneously defeating and self-defeating dynamic.
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At the core of this paper is a psychosocial inquiry into the Marxist concept of alienation and its applications to the field of digital labour. Following a brief review of theoretical works on alienation, it looks into its recent... more
At the core of this paper is a psychosocial inquiry into the Marxist concept of alienation and its applications to the field of digital labour. Following a brief review of theoretical works on alienation, it looks into its recent conceptualisations and applications to the study of online social networking sites. Subsequently, the authors offer suggestions on how to extend and render more complex these recent approaches through in-
depth analyses of Facebook posts that exemplify how alienation is experienced, articulated, and expressed online. Supporting this perspective, the article draws on Rahel Jaeggi’s (2005) reassessment of alienation, as well as the depth-hermeneutic method of “scenic understanding” developed by Alfred Lorenzer.
depth analyses of Facebook posts that exemplify how alienation is experienced, articulated, and expressed online. Supporting this perspective, the article draws on Rahel Jaeggi’s (2005) reassessment of alienation, as well as the depth-hermeneutic method of “scenic understanding” developed by Alfred Lorenzer.
Research Interests:
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Alfred Lorenzer was a German sociologist and psychoanalyst, whose work represents the most substantial theoretical and methodological contribution to 'applied' psychoanalysis and the integration of psychoanalysis and the social sciences... more
Alfred Lorenzer was a German sociologist and psychoanalyst, whose work represents the most substantial theoretical and methodological contribution to 'applied' psychoanalysis and the integration of psychoanalysis and the social sciences in Germany in the late 20th century. […] Perhaps the most central text of that endeavor is published here in English for the first time.
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This is the first-ever special issue of a media and communication journal that addresses questions of subjectivity, digital media and the Internet with a focus on psychoanalytic theory. The contributing authors seek to reassess and... more
This is the first-ever special issue of a media and communication journal that addresses questions of subjectivity, digital media and the Internet with a focus on psychoanalytic theory.
The contributing authors seek to reassess and reinvigorate psychoanalytic thinking in media and communication studies. They undertake this reassessment with a particular focus on the question of what psychoanalytic concepts, theories and modes of inquiry can contribute to the study of contemporary digital media.
The collection features a broad range of psychoanalytic approaches - from Freudian, via Kleinian and relational, to Lacanian and Jungian - and covers a wide range of issues - from the uses (and abuses) of the mobile phone and other digital devices, the circulation of traumatising images and anxiety-inducing tracking apps, via hysteric feminist discourses, digital fetishes and the exploitation of YouTube celebrities, to the meaning of the gangbang in a priapistic media culture and this culture's emptying-out of meaning towards its climax in a cosmic spasm...
The contributing authors seek to reassess and reinvigorate psychoanalytic thinking in media and communication studies. They undertake this reassessment with a particular focus on the question of what psychoanalytic concepts, theories and modes of inquiry can contribute to the study of contemporary digital media.
The collection features a broad range of psychoanalytic approaches - from Freudian, via Kleinian and relational, to Lacanian and Jungian - and covers a wide range of issues - from the uses (and abuses) of the mobile phone and other digital devices, the circulation of traumatising images and anxiety-inducing tracking apps, via hysteric feminist discourses, digital fetishes and the exploitation of YouTube celebrities, to the meaning of the gangbang in a priapistic media culture and this culture's emptying-out of meaning towards its climax in a cosmic spasm...
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Our lives are saturated by media that we use in conscious as well as unconscious ways. Spanning a wide range of examples, from film and TV to social media, from gaming to robots, this critical introduction guides readers through the... more
Our lives are saturated by media that we use in conscious as well as unconscious ways. Spanning a wide range of examples, from film and TV to social media, from gaming to robots, this critical introduction guides readers through the growing field of psychoanalytic media studies in a clear and accessible manner. It is indispensable read for anyone who wants to understand the complex relationship between humans and technology today.
Jacob Johanssen and Steffen Kruger show how media function beyond the rational. What does it mean to speak of narcissism in relation to social media? How have the internet and online platforms shaped work? How do apps like Tinder and online pornography shape our experience of love and sexuality? What are the potentials and pitfalls in our relationships with AI and robots? These questions, and many others, are discussed and answered in this book.
Aimed at students, academics and clinicians, this book introduces readers to key media and the ways they have been approached psychoanalytically, and presents major concepts and debates led by scholars since the 1970s.
Jacob Johanssen and Steffen Kruger show how media function beyond the rational. What does it mean to speak of narcissism in relation to social media? How have the internet and online platforms shaped work? How do apps like Tinder and online pornography shape our experience of love and sexuality? What are the potentials and pitfalls in our relationships with AI and robots? These questions, and many others, are discussed and answered in this book.
Aimed at students, academics and clinicians, this book introduces readers to key media and the ways they have been approached psychoanalytically, and presents major concepts and debates led by scholars since the 1970s.
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special issue of CM: Journal of Communication and Media, 11/38, 2016
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Abstract deutsch: Dieser Artikel vertieft meine Analysen männlicher Online-Subkulturen im Lichte eines erweiterten empirischen Fundaments und Theorieapparats. Zuerst stelle ich meine zentrale These – die anale psychosexuelle Orientierung... more
Abstract deutsch:
Dieser Artikel vertieft meine Analysen männlicher Online-Subkulturen im Lichte eines erweiterten empirischen Fundaments und Theorieapparats. Zuerst stelle ich meine zentrale These – die anale psychosexuelle Orientierung männlicher Subkulturen im Internet – auf breiter empirischer Grundlage dar. Daraufhin adressiere ich weiterführende Fragen: (a) zur Legitimität, psychoanalytische Konzepte auf soziokulturelle Phänomene anzuwenden; (b) hierbei besonders zur Anwendbarkeit des Narzissmusbegriffs auf Männergruppen im Netz; (c) zur Funktion von Komik und Humor in den Internetforen; (d) zum verblüffenden Offenliegen des Primärprozesshaften in virtuellen Räumen; sowie (e) danach, warum diese Subkulturen ‚Männern‘ vorbehalten sind.
Abstract englisch:
This article deepens my analyses of male online subcultures through an extended empirical foundation and theoretical apparatus. First I put my central thesis – the anal psychosexual orientation of male subcultures online – on a broad empirical basis. Then I address additional questions referring to: (a) the legitimacy of applying psychoanalytic concepts to sociocultural phenomena; (b) the applicability of the concept of narcissism to male online groups in particular; (c) the function of humor and the comic in internet forums; (d) the striking openness of displays of the primary process in virtual spaces; and (e) the question why these subcultures are reserved for men.
Dieser Artikel vertieft meine Analysen männlicher Online-Subkulturen im Lichte eines erweiterten empirischen Fundaments und Theorieapparats. Zuerst stelle ich meine zentrale These – die anale psychosexuelle Orientierung männlicher Subkulturen im Internet – auf breiter empirischer Grundlage dar. Daraufhin adressiere ich weiterführende Fragen: (a) zur Legitimität, psychoanalytische Konzepte auf soziokulturelle Phänomene anzuwenden; (b) hierbei besonders zur Anwendbarkeit des Narzissmusbegriffs auf Männergruppen im Netz; (c) zur Funktion von Komik und Humor in den Internetforen; (d) zum verblüffenden Offenliegen des Primärprozesshaften in virtuellen Räumen; sowie (e) danach, warum diese Subkulturen ‚Männern‘ vorbehalten sind.
Abstract englisch:
This article deepens my analyses of male online subcultures through an extended empirical foundation and theoretical apparatus. First I put my central thesis – the anal psychosexual orientation of male subcultures online – on a broad empirical basis. Then I address additional questions referring to: (a) the legitimacy of applying psychoanalytic concepts to sociocultural phenomena; (b) the applicability of the concept of narcissism to male online groups in particular; (c) the function of humor and the comic in internet forums; (d) the striking openness of displays of the primary process in virtual spaces; and (e) the question why these subcultures are reserved for men.
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This commentary draws critical attention to the ongoing commodification of trust in policy and scholarly discourses of artificial intelligence (AI) and society. Based on an assessment of publications discussing the implementation of AI in... more
This commentary draws critical attention to the ongoing commodification of trust in policy and scholarly discourses of artificial intelligence (AI) and society. Based on an assessment of publications discussing the implementation of AI in governmental and private services, our findings indicate that this discursive trend towards commodification is driven by the need for a trusting population of service users in order to harvest data at scale and leads to the discursive construction of trust as an essential good on a par with data as raw material. This discursive commodification is marked by a decreasing emphasis on trust understood as the expected reliability of a trusted agent, and increased emphasis on instrumental and extractive framings of trust as a resource. This tendency, we argue, does an ultimate disservice to developers, users, and systems alike, insofar as it obscures the subtle mechanisms through which trust in AI systems might be built, making it less likely that it will be.
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Dieses Kapitel liefert einen Abriss über die ersten zehn Jahre der Geschichte der digitalen Selbstvermessung (2007-2017) und arbeitet eine autoritäre Dimension dieser Praktik heraus, die besonders in der aktuellen Entwicklungsphase... more
Dieses Kapitel liefert einen Abriss über die ersten zehn Jahre der Geschichte der digitalen Selbstvermessung (2007-2017) und arbeitet eine autoritäre Dimension dieser Praktik heraus, die besonders in der aktuellen Entwicklungsphase hervortritt. Mithilfe eines psychoanalytisch orientierten Fokus auf Angst und deren Containment lässt sich die Geschichte der digitalen Selbstvermessung in drei Hauptphasen gliedern. Während in der frühen Phase der Quantified Self-Bewegung das Containment von chronischen gesundheitlichen Problemen im Vordergrund steht (Phase eins), verdrängt zwar die Kommodifizierung der sogenannten Selbst-Quantifizierung in Form von Fitness-Trackern und Smart Watches diese Logik des Containments (Phase zwei), gleichermaßen breitet sich letztere jedoch auf immer mehr Bereiche des alltäglichen Lebens aus und infiziert die Praktiken und Routinen der NutzerInnen mit einem generellen Drang zur Selbstoptimierung. Während Selbst-Quantifizierung als hochgradig individualisierte und personalisierte Aktivität beworben wird, führt die unternehmensgesteuerte Online-Überwachung und das Verkaufen von NutzerInnendaten an Dritte dazu, dass dieses Verlangen nach Selbstoptimierung zu einem gesellschaftlichen Trend avanciert. NutzerInnen wissen, dass ihre Daten zirkulieren und von anderen ausgewertet werden. Dieses stillschweigende Wissen macht die Selbstoptimierung zu einer moralischen Frage: Wie fit muss ich sein, um fit genug zu sein? An diesem Punkt treten private Versicherungsgesellschaften mit dem Angebot eines Kompromisses auf (Phase drei): „Da du sowieso weißt, dass wir deine Daten haben, warum gibst du sie uns nicht direkt? Im Gegenzug sagen wir dir genau was du machen musst und wie viel davon, um fit zu sein.“ In eben jenem Vorschlag sehe ich die autoritäre Dimension der digitalen Selbstvermessung.
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Auf Basis der Analyse von über 100 YouTube-Videos über die Demonstrationen, die sich im Frühjahr 2020 gegen die Coronavirus-Schutzmaßnahmen der Bundesregierung wendeten, werden sozialpsychologische Thesen zum Verhältnis von Populismus und... more
Auf Basis der Analyse von über 100 YouTube-Videos über die Demonstrationen, die sich im Frühjahr 2020 gegen die Coronavirus-Schutzmaßnahmen der Bundesregierung wendeten, werden sozialpsychologische Thesen zum Verhältnis von Populismus und digitalen Medien zur Diskussion gestellt. Die Analyse deutet auf eine von sozialen Medien begünstigte Intensivierung populistischer Dispositionen hin, die sich besonders in einem atomistischen Verständnis von Freiheit und einem relativistischen Wahrheitsbegriff artikuliert. Letztere öffnen die Demonstrationen hin zum rechten politischen Spektrum.
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Building on existing German transformation research, this article critically reconstructs an aspect of the problematic power relationship that emerged between the former East and West Germany after their reunification. In this... more
Building on existing German transformation research, this article critically reconstructs an aspect of the problematic power relationship that emerged between the former East and West Germany after their reunification. In this relationship, the West took on a dominant, hegemonic position and the East a subaltern one. Drawing on jokes from East and West Germany as well as from the post-reunification period, an in-depth hermeneutic analysis brings into view a dynamic that can be read as symptomatic of this power imbalance. Particularly the fate of the figure of the ‘good-for-nothing,’ a mainstay in East German jokes, becomes emblematic of the subalternization of the East. Whereas, before the fall of the Berlin Wall, this good-for-nothing was associated with a subversive Trickster figure, in post-reunification Germany, and from the dominant Western perspective, the extraordinary vitality of this figure became incomprehensible, the joke was lost, and the good-for-nothing turned stigmatic.
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The chapter is divided up into four main parts. Firstly, it provides a historical outline of the development of media studies by shedding light on the founding of its main schools and traditions. Secondly, it offers an understanding of... more
The chapter is divided up into four main parts. Firstly, it provides a historical outline of the development of media studies by shedding light on the founding of its main schools and traditions. Secondly, it offers an understanding of media from a psychosocial vantage point, so as to then, thirdly, touch upon existing psychosocial traditions of studying media. The final part offers miniature portraits of central thinkers and texts in media studies and discusses their bearings on psychosocial conceptions of the subject. Due to the interdisciplinary origins and outlook of both media and psychosocial studies and their part reliance on the same academic traditions, a significant number of key positions in media studies show strong affinities to psychosocial conceptions of the subject. Countering the dominant, quantitative-empirical research paradigm in media studies, these positions themselves have long-since taken on hegemonic status. This status, in turn, casts an interesting light on psychosocial studies, which has traditionally seen itself as at the margins of the academic field.
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By analysing key television commercials for domestic smart speakers, the paper examines the ways in which the tech corporations Google and Amazon seek to cultivate these devices in our daily lives. The paper works out the contradictions... more
By analysing key television commercials for domestic smart speakers, the paper examines the ways in which the tech corporations Google and Amazon seek to cultivate these devices in our daily lives. The paper works out the contradictions inherent in the commercials so as to connect the ensuing interpretations to the issues of care, empowerment and citizenship. The paper puts forth the following arguments: (1) The practices of care enacted by/through smart speakers are invariably freighed with an element of aggression. This aggression is captured in the form of interaction of turning to the other but addressing the device. (2) Smart speakers are paradoxically meant to empower a class of people rooted in a social model that is in decline due to the political economy that has brought these devices forth. (3) As concerns citizenship, the convenience the devices offer threatens to make political difference and otherness disappear.
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Since its launch in late 2015, the Norwegian webseries Skam (Shame), produced by public broadcaster NRK, has become one of the most notable successes in Norwegian television history, both in terms of ratings and critical acclaim. A... more
Since its launch in late 2015, the Norwegian webseries Skam (Shame), produced by public broadcaster NRK, has become one of the most notable successes in Norwegian television history, both in terms of ratings and critical acclaim. A high-school webseries about teenagers, mostly girls, coming of age in the Norwegian capital of Oslo, the series not only depicts young people in their everyday digital-media use, but also reaches its audience through these same media and in a variety of formats extending far beyond video clips. Its success, we argue, is significantly tied to its multimedial form and distribution. We unpack the show's sociocultural potential by analysing its various outputs (video clips, screen grabs of the characters' messenger chats and updates from their Instagram accounts), as well as the audience's/users' responses to these in the form of comments to the webpage. We argue that the show functions as a " transitional object " (Winnicott) for its teen audiences, providing them with a " potential space " (also Winnicott) in which they can learn how to cope with the challenges of a media-saturated society.
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Since its launch in late 2015, the Norwegian webseries Skam (Shame), produced by public broadcaster NRK, has become one of the most notable successes in Norwegian television history, both in terms of ratings and critical acclaim. A... more
Since its launch in late 2015, the Norwegian webseries Skam (Shame), produced by public broadcaster NRK, has become one of the most notable successes in Norwegian television history, both in terms of ratings and critical acclaim. A high-school webseries about teenagers, mostly girls, coming of age in the Norwegian capital of Oslo, the series not only depicts young people in their everyday digital-media use, but also reaches its audience through these same media and in a variety of formats extending far beyond video clips. Its success, we argue, is significantly tied to its multimedial form and distribution. We unpack the show's sociocultural potential by analysing its various outputs (video clips, screen grabs of the characters' messenger chats and updates from their Instagram accounts), as well as the audience's/users' responses to these in the form of comments to the webpage. We argue that the show functions as a " transitional object " (Winnicott) for its teen audiences, providing them with a " potential space " (also Winnicott) in which they can learn how to cope with the challenges of a media-saturated society.
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In this chapter I give an account of the first ten years of the history of digital self-tracking (2007–2017) and bring to the fore an authoritarian dimension emerging from the current phase in its development. Adding a psychoanalytically... more
In this chapter I give an account of the first ten years of the history of digital self-tracking (2007–2017) and bring to the fore an authoritarian dimension emerging from the current phase in its development. Adding a psychoanalytically informed focus on the role of anxiety and its containment to the existing approaches, I show the history of digital self-tracking as falling into three main phases. While, in the early days of the Quantified Self movement, the containment of chronic health problems took centre stage (phase one), the commodification of self-tracking in the form of fitness trackers and smart watches (phase two) has glossed over the initial logic of containment. By the same token, this logic has been spreading to increasingly more spheres of life, colonising users' routines and practices with a general drive towards self-optimisation. Whereas fitness tracking is sold as a highly customised and personalised activity, online corporate surveillance and the selling of user data to third parties turns the self-optimisation endeavour into a decisively social one. Users know that their data travels and that it is being assessed by others, and this tacit knowledge turns self-optimisation into a moral issue: How fit do I have to be to be fit enough? It is at this point that private insurance companies are stepping in (phase three) with the suggestion of a trade-off: 'Since you know that your data is up for grabs anyways, why not give it to us directly? In exchange we tell you exactly what to do and how fit to be. It is in the suggestion of this deal that I see the authoritarian dimension of digital self-tracking.
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Em meados de maio de 2020, quando eu me dispus a tentar contato via e-mail e da maneira mais formal possível com o professor alemão Steffen Krüger, usei “Dr. Krüger” o tempo todo na mensagem e tentei, em vão, chegar o mais próximo do que... more
Em meados de maio de 2020, quando eu me dispus a tentar contato via e-mail e da maneira mais formal possível com o professor alemão Steffen Krüger, usei “Dr. Krüger” o tempo todo na mensagem e tentei, em vão, chegar o mais próximo do que seria passar a imagem de um acadêmico sem informalidades, quase “frio” e interessado somente na vida acadêmica do meu entrevistado. Jamais imaginaria o quão singular é a trajetória da pessoa por trás dessa figura tão acessível e tão gentil que, muito brevemente, desmontou todo o cenário de formalidade que tentei construir tão ingenuamente. Ou seja, tentei conhecer Dr. Krüger e acabei conhecendo mais: descobri Steffen. Em nosso bate-papo, entendi que o seu caminhar pelo mundo acadêmico (e, curiosamente, também na cena musical indie) me fez refletir em como os trajetos que pensamos já estar definidos para nossa vida profissional nem sempre são os que primeiro nos acenam como indiscutivelmente verdadeiros e inquestionáveis. Mais do que compreender como foi se construindo a trilha de seus pensamentos envoltos em temas tão próprios como interações e mídias digitais, estudos psicossociais e a cultura das telas, essa entrevista também apresenta os descaminhos, o fortuito e o acaso como possíveis chaves de leitura para entender o desenvolvimento teórico e metodológico dos trabalhos de Steffen Krüger. Atuando no Departamento de Mídia e Comunicação, da Universidade de Oslo (Universitetet i Oslo - UiO, Noruega), Krüger é hoje um dos idealizadores e o atual coordenador do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Culturas de Tela (Screen Cultures) que conta, no momento, com o curso de Mestrado na área.