Vera King - Lost in Perfection: Impacts of Optimisation on Culture and Psyche

The permanent struggle for optimisation can be seen as one of the most significant cultural principles of contemporary Western societies: the demand for improved performance and efficiency as well as the pursuit of self-improvement are considered necessary in order to keep pace with an accelerated, competitive modernity. This affects not only work and education, but also family life, parentchild relationships and intimate relationships in respect to the body and the self, in regard to the public as well as the private realm. Bringing together contributions from renowned scholars in the fields of sociology, psychology and psychoanalysis, this book explores the impacts of optimisation on culture and psyche, examining the contradictions and limitations of optimisation, in conjunction with the effects of social transformations on individuals and shifts in regard to the meaning of pathology and normality.

Vera King is Professor of Sociology and Social Psychology at Goethe University and Managing Director of the Sigmund Freud Institute, Frankfurt a.M., Germany.

Benigna Gerisch is Professor of Clinical Psychology, Psychoanalysis, Intervention and Psychodynamic Counselling at International Psychoanalytic University, Berlin, Germany. She is a trained psychoanalyst and member of the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA).

Hartmut Rosa is Professor of Sociology at Jena University and Director of the Max Weber Center, Germany. He is the author of Social Acceleration: A New Theory of Modernity .

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Martyn Hudson

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Edited by Michael Hviid Jacobsen

Urban Walls
Political and Cultural Meanings of Vertical Structures and Surfaces
Edited by Andrea Mubi Brighenti and Mattias Krrholm

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Impacts of Optimisation on Culture and Psyche

Edited by Vera King, Benigna Gerisch and Hartmut Rosa

With editorial assistance from Julia Schreiber and Benedikt Salfeld

First published 2019
by Routledge
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2019 selection and editorial matter, Vera King, Benigna Gerisch, Hartmut Rosa; individual chapters, the contributors

The right of Vera King, Benigna Gerisch, Hartmut Rosa to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: King, Vera, editor. | Gerisch, Benigna, editor. | Rosa, Hartmut,
1965- editor.
Title: Lost in perfection: impacts of optimisation on culture and psyche /
edited by Vera King, Benigna Gerisch and Hartmut Rosa; with editorial
assistance from Julia Schreiber & Benedikt Salfeld.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge,
Series: Classical and contemporary social theory | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018003035| ISBN 9781138894365 (hbk) |
ISBN 9781315179964 (ebk)
Subjects: LCSH: Social sciencesPhilosophy. | Mathematical
optimizationSocial aspects.
Classification: LCC H61.15 .L67 2018 | DDC 300.1/1dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018003035

ISBN: 978-1-138-89436-5 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-17996-4 (ebk)

Typeset in Times New Roman by Keystroke, Neville Lodge, Tettenhall, Wolverhampton

Christiane Beerbom , Psychologist, is working as a Psychotherapist in Berlin.

Ada Borkenhagen is Psychoanalyst and Traininganalyst (IPA) and Assistant Professor at the University Hospital for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy at the University of Magdeburg.

Ulrich Brckling is Professor of Cultural Sociology at the University of Freiburg.

Heinz Bude is Professor for Macrosociology at the University of Kassel.

Katarina Busch , Educational Scientist, is Research Assistant at the Department of Educational Sciences at the University of Hamburg.

Eve Chiapello is Directrice dtudes (Professor) at the cole des Hautes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) .

Sophie de Mijolla-Mellor is Psychoanalyst and Professor emeritus of Psychopathology and Psychoanalysis at the University of Paris-Diderot.

Alain Ehrenberg is Research Director emeritus at the Centre National de la Recherch Scientifique (CNRS).

Benigna Gerisch is Psychoanalyst (IPA) and Professor of Clinical Psychology, Psychoanalysis, Intervention and Psychodynamic Counselling at the International Psychoanalytic University Berlin (IPU).

Vera King is Professor of Sociology and Social Psychology at the Goethe University and Managing Director of the Sigmund-Freud-Institute (SFI) in Frankfurt/M.

Steffen Krger , PhD, is Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Media and Communication at the University of Oslo.

Diana Lindner , PhD, is Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department for Sociology at the Schiller-University of Jena.

Heinrich Merkt is working as a Psychologist at the Robert-Bosch-Krankenhaus in Stuttgart and in Psychoanalytic Training (IPA).

Jrg Oberthr , PhD, is Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Sociology at the University of Jena.