Abstract
This essay builds on the theory of “new individualism” to explore its psychosocial ramifications (Elliott and Lemert, 2006, 2009b; Elliott, 2008, 2009, 2010; Elliott and Urry, 2010). I have argued elsewhere that the conditions and consequences of new individualism are especially evident in the new economy of high finance, media and technology industries. “New individualism” penetrates the very core of culture and institutional life, and represents a kind of shorthand for describing various and disparate modalities that shape, and are shaped by, global social transformations. The key institutional drivers of new individualism are (a) continual reinvention, (b) instant change, (c) speed, and (d) short- termism or episodicity. I elaborate this theoretical work by examining the psychic and emotional contours of a life lived in the new individualist fast lane. In so doing I draw on psychoanalysis—in a necessarily partial and restricted way—to focus on the melancholic elements of new individualism.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Bauman, Z. (2005) Liquid Life (Cambridge: Polity).
DeLillo, D. (1998) Underworld (London: Picador).
Eagleton, T. (2003) After Theory (London: Allen Lane).
Elliott, A. M. (1992) Social Theory and Psychoanalysis in Transition (Oxford: Blackwell).
Elliott, A. M. (2008) Making the Cut: How Cosmetic Surgery is Transforming Our Lives (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Elliott, A. M. (2009) Contemporary Social Theory (London: Routledge).
Elliott, A. M. (2010) “The New Individualism after the Great Global Clash”, Journal of Studies in Contemporary Sociological Theory, 4, 55–66.
Elliott, A. M. and C. Lemert (2006) The New Individualism: The Emotional Costs of Globalization, Revised Edition (London and New York: Routledge).
Elliott, A. M. and C. Lemert (2009a) “The Global New Individualist Debate: Three Theories of Individualism and Beyond” in A. Elliott and P. du Gay (eds) Identity in Question (London: Sage).
Elliott, A. M. and C. Lemert (2009b) The New Individualism: The Emotional Costs of Globalization, 2nd edn. (London: Routledge).
Elliott, A. M. (2013) Reinvention (London: Routledge).
Elliott, A. M. and J. Urry (2010) Mobile Lives (Oxford: Routledge).
Eriksen, T. (2001) Tyranny of the Moment (London: Pluto Press).
Freud, S. (1915) “Mourning and Melancholia”, in J. Strachey (ed.) The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. 14 (New York: Basic Books).
Freud, S. (1926) Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety, Vol. 20, in J. Strachey (ed.) The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (New York: Basic Books).
Gare, S. (2007) “Do You Think I’m Sixty?”, The Australian Weekend Magazine, 7–8 April, p. 16.
Gibson, M. (2006) “Bodies without Histories”, Australian Feminist Studies, 21 (49), 51–63.
Giddens, A. (1991) Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age (Cambridge: Polity).
Giddens, A. (2003) Runaway World: How Globalisation is Reshaping our Lives (New York: Routledge).
Grossman, G. and Rosi-Hansberg, E. (2006) “The Rise of Off-Shoring: It’s Not Wine or Cloth Anymore.” A paper presented at The New Economic Geography: Effects and Policy Implications, 2006, Jackson Hole Symposium, Kansas City, MO, July 2006.
Haikio, M. (2002) Nokia: The Inside Story (Boston: Prentice Hall).
Held, D. (1991) “Democracy, the Nation-State and the Global System”, Economy and Society, 20 (2), 138–172.
Held, D., McGrew, A., Perraton, J., and Goldblatt, D. (1999) Global Transformations (Cambridge: Polity).
Homans, P. (1989) The Ability to Mourn (Chicago: Chicago University Press).
Kellehear, A. (2006) A Social History of Dying (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Klein, M. (1935) “A Contribution to the Psychogenesis of Manic-Depressive States”, The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 16, 145–174.
Klein, M. (1940) “Mourning and Its Relation to Manic-Depressive States”, The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 21, 125–153.
Kristeva, J. (1982) Powers of Horror (New York: Columbia University Press).
Kristeva, J. (1989) Black Sun: Depression and Melancholia (New York: Columbia University Press).
Kundera, M. (1995) Slowness (New York: HarperCollins).
Lacan, J. (1977) “The Agency of the Letter in the Unconscious of Reason since Freud” in J. Lacan (ed.) Ecrits (London: Tavistock).
Merriden, T. (2001) Business the Nokia Way: Secrets of the World’s Fastest Moving Company (Oxford: Capstone).
“Reshaping Cisco: The World According to Chambers” (2009) The Economist, 27 August.
Riesman, D., Glazer, N., and Denny, R. (2001) The Lonely Crowd: A Study of the Changing American Character, revised edn. (New Haven: Yale University Press).
Rosa, H. (2003) “Social Acceleration: Ethical and Political Consequences of a Desynchronized High-Speed Society”, Constellations, 10 (1), 3–33.
Scheuerman, W. E. (2005) “Busyness and Citizenship”, Social Research, 72 (2), 447–470.
Sennett, R. (1998) The Corrosion of Character (New York: Norton).
Sennett, R. (2005) The Culture of the New Capital (New Haven: Yale University Press).
Soros, G. (1998) The Crisis of Global Capitalism: Open Society Endangered (New York: Public Affairs).
Sprengnether, M. (1995) “Mourning Freud” in A. Elliott and S. Frosh (eds) Psychoanalysis in Contexts: Paths between Theory and Modern Culture (London: Routledge).
Virilio, P. (1986) Speed and Politics (New York: Semiotext(e)).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2014 Anthony Elliott
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Elliott, A. (2014). On the Melancholia of New Individualism. In: Chancer, L., Andrews, J. (eds) The Unhappy Divorce of Sociology and Psychoanalysis. Studies in the Psychosocial. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137304582_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137304582_15
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-30457-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-30458-2
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social Sciences CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)