Summary
Contents
Subject index
The emotions have traditionally been marginalized in mainstream social theory. This book demonstrates the problems that this has caused and charts the resurgence of emotions in social theory today. Drawing on a wide variety of sources, both classical and contemporary, Simon Williams treats the emotions as a universal feature of human life and our embodied relationship to the world. He reflects and comments upon the turn towards the body and intimacy in social theory, and explains what is important in current thinking about emotions. In his doing so, readers are provided with a critical assessment of various positions within the field, including the strengths and weaknesses of poststructuralism and postmodernism for examinin
‘Manufactured’ Emotions?: The ‘(Un)Managed Heart’ Revisited
‘Manufactured’ Emotions?: The ‘(Un)Managed Heart’ Revisited
One of the dominant themes running throughout this book, concerns the tensions and dilemmas of emotions in an era where they are managed if not manipulated and marketed if not manufactured, to an unprecedented degree. In this chapter we take a further look at these issues and debates from a number of different angles, including the emotional dynamics of the consumption experience and the ‘quest for excitement’ through leisure and entertainment; the current proliferation of ‘psy’ therapies and ‘holistic’ healing modalities designed to help put us ‘in touch’ with our feelings; the electronic/digital world of cyberspace; and finally, the various states of rage and violence detectable within contemporary forms of (civilized) life and living, ...
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