The role of objectification

in social phenomenology

pasquale j. festainf386internet in everyday lifeprof. aspray

Topics for Discussion:

•KEY FIGURES IN BUILDING THE THEORY OF OBJECTIFICATION

•MILLER’S CONECPT

•UNDERSTANDING OBJECTIFICATION

Seedlings.

Husserl & Lacan

Introduced the concept of Phenomenology to Modern Philosophy

Phenomenology tries to understand consciousness as it is formed through

our conscious interaction with the world.

The term is self comes from Greek and literally means

“that which Appears”

b. 1901d. 1981

Edmund Husserl b. 1859d. 1938

Jacques LacanPost-Freudian Psychoanalyst.

Contributed the concept of the Mirror Phase

and The Gaze to Psychoanalytic Theory.

What I seek in speech is the response of the other. What constitutes me as subject is my question. In order to be recognized by the other, I utter what was only in view of what will be. In order to find him, I call him by a name that he must assume or refuse in order to reply to me. - on the subject/object relationship

b. 1901d. 1981

Objectification

Miller’s approach to these concepts.

Objectification (Lally, 31):

The concept of objectification recognizes that cultural phenomena which seem fixed and rigid are in reality dynamic social processes, providing a view of all cultural form as created by human activity, in a dynamic, dialectical and diachronic process.

ObjectificationThe Process

1. The human subject develops through a series of processes of

externalization and reabsorption in its relation to external

objects.2. A subject/object relationship is formed that mutually evolves as

the two conjoin into an irreducible entity.

Miller’s Approach to Objectification. . . The subject, object and process exist and can usefully be analytically distinguished but are ultimately inseparable from the point of view of any one aspect of the system determining the outcomes for the others (Lally, 32)

While Husserl focused predominantly on the human perspective and Lacan’s work can only be interpreted in terms of the discipline of developmental psychology, Miller reappropriates these theories for application to social studies in general.

The role of objectification

in social phenomenology

While other approaches to social and cultural studies draw a strict line between humans and objects, objectification ultimately expresses that the demarcation between people and “things” is fuzzy at best and changes on one end of the spectrum will fundamentally causes changes at the other end, ad infinitum.

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