Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Postmodernism, Psychoanalysis

It seems like we are still in a phase of postmodernism, especially when considering the third stage of Baudrillard's achievement of emptiness. This seems to be very similar to what is shown in the "Dove Evolution" video, which shows the severe manipulation of a woman into what is considered 'beautiful.' She is made up by professionals, then altered by a computer so that there is no way that any human would ever look like she did; there is no way that anyone could be beautiful. Thus, we are striving for an unreachable ideal and feeling inadequate for no reason. Also, I was super impressed by the work that cooks like Bulli are doing with 'molecular gastrology,' in a sense blending art and science and demonstrating the high position of living we have attained in many places, such that we can do ridiculous experiments with food. However, it also shows the disregard we have for our neighbors because it seems like our resources could be better used to get basic needs met for those without than to experiment with food. We are efficient, compartmentalized, and postmodern.
Psychoanalysis by Lacan interests me because I have never heard of it before. Freud seems to take up the light, but Lacan takes Freud's works further. Lacan connects the structure of language, in essence our structure of thinking, into the unconscious. It is true that we are programmed to think in many respects based on language. If there is not some word used to describe how we are feeling, we have a hard time describing it.

1 comment:

  1. Postmodernity is what we are living under. Think of "reality-shows". What a concept! Think of how the Bush administration created a news bureau to feed manufactured news to the major outlets which in turn ended up broadcasting the administration's propaganda as if it were "objective" or "real" news!

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