Simon Clarke

Splitting Difference: Psychoanalysis, Hatred and Exclusion

In this paper I will argue that the inclusion of certain aspects of psychoanalytic theory into sociological analysis can be particularly enlightening in specific areas of social research where traditional theory and practice have failed to explain phenomena satisfactorily. This is arguably the case in the explanation of hatred and exclusion, where powerful affective forces fuel racist discourse and support structures of discimination. This is not presented as an antithesis or critique of contemporary sociological methodologies, rather as an addition, a tool through which another dimension of exploration is added to give a greater understanding of conflict arising in social life. This paper seeks to reveal the affective forces that shape motivation in everyday life, influencing social structure and leading to the maltreatment of people because of their ‘otherness’.

Psychoanalytic Sociology and the Interpretation of Emotion

Simon Clarke, Psychoanalytic Sociology and the Interpretation of Emotion, pp. 145–163. In this paper I explore the sociological study of emotion, contrasting constructionist and psychoanalytic accounts of envy as an emotion. I seek not to contra each vis-a-vis the other but to establish some kind of synthesis in a psychoanalytic sociology of emotion. I argue that although the constructionist approach to emotion gives us valuable insights into the social and moral dimensions of human encounters, it is unable to address the level of emotional intensity found for example in murderous rage against ethnic groups, or the emotional and often self destructive elements of terrorism. Psychoanalytic ideas do engage with these dynamics, and as such, a theory that synthesises both the social construction of reality and the psychodynamics of social life is necessary if we are to engage with these destructive emotions.

Imagining the ‘Other’/Figuring Encounter: White English Middle-Class and Working-Class Identifications

Although there is a vast corpus on ‘race’ in the British context, a relatively small proportion of this is devoted to the ethnic majority, i.e. white Britons. While there is no direct parallel with the investigation of white identities that has occurred in the USA with the multidisciplinary field of ‘whiteness studies’ (Garner, 2007), this chapter provides a contribution to the analysis of how people discursively make ‘white’ identities in contemporary Britain, in both working and middle-class milieux in places where there are fewer BME people than average.

The Study of Emotion: An Introduction

Emotions occupy an ambiguous place in the popular imagination. Sometimes they are regarded as irrational passions which threaten to destroy our calmly ordered lives. Emotions, from this point of view, are located in the body. When people feel emotions, a violent energy arises within them which compels them to act in ways they may later regret. Emotions are regarded as forces beyond our control for which we cannot be held responsible. They are disruptive forces that may even threaten the rules and regulations on which civilization itself depends. In this account of emotions, road rage can be seen as a typical case in point. A driver believes another road-user has acted in a selfish or stupid manner. He suddenly feels a surge of anger which leads him to want to take violent revenge. It seems as if this rage has derailed his reason and taken him over. If he does take revenge, he may well bitterly regret his action once he has calmed down. Where this view of emotions predominates, the inference likely to be drawn is that we should be guided by our powers of reasoning, thinking through the consequences of our actions. We should stay calm, retain our self-discipline, keep our cool. Thus it would be best if anger and rage were effectively restrained, disgust and hatred diminished, fear and anxiety brought under control. In short, reason should master emotion. Indeed, adapting Freud (1930) a little, it could be said that civilization rests on the repression of emotion.

Moving Forward in the Study of Emotions: Some Conclusions

None of the contributors to this book subscribe to the idea that the emotions are inconsequential or stand opposed to reason and rationality. In different ways the previous chapters have demonstrated that the emotions make a substantive contribution to political and social life, that they are not simply the consequence of thought or action but are also a crucial determinant. The contributors go further: whilst they demonstrate how the emotions can contribute to unreason (Alford shows, for example, how hatred can attack the very foundation of thinking itself) they also show how the emotions contribute to struggles against injustice and thoughtful ethical action. Moreover they demonstrate how an understanding of the emotions can provide a richer and fuller understanding of rationality. But there are still some unresolved issues here. In particular there is the vexed question of the precise relationship between thinking and feeling. Can feelings exist which lack a thinker to think them? Are feelings necessarily attached to an individual thinker or can they be the possession of a group? In other words, if the possibility of the existence of collective feelings is acknowledged, in what way are they collective? Do experiences such as social suffering, ressentiment or a shared sense of outrage or shame exist in a kind of social ether or is this to fall into a kind of reification of emotion, one in which emotion becomes some kind of phantasmic force operating above and beyond individual actors? Just how do shared emotions make themselves present, what form do they take?

Applying Theory in Practice: Politics and Emotions in Everyday Life

Now we have established some of the microfoundations of emotion in the previous two chapters we want to turn to the practical application of the study of emotion in everyday life. To reiterate some of the themes thus far, we have argued that emotions occupy a place of ambiguity in the popular imagination or consciousness. Emotion is often seen as an eruption of the irrational, for example, of a rage where the individual is unable to contain his or her feelings and act in a rational manner. We tend to see eruptions of such ‘negative emotions’ as bad or destructive whereas it is quite all right to fall in love. Academically, there has always been a tension between what we might call a social constructionist view of emotions and that of a biological standpoint. In other words are emotions part of cultural socialization or are they an innate part of the structure of our biology? At times the counterposition of social constructionism to biological reductionism, the nature-versus-nurture debate if you like, has detracted from their study. Several of the chapters in this second part of the book take a far more reconciliatory view. They carve a path between what we might term ‘learnt behaviour’ and the idea that we may also have certain innate predispositions and reactions that are driven by our unconscious mind.