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Chapter 4 - Searching for Intimacy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 September 2018

Joachim C. Häberlen
Affiliation:
University of Warwick
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Summary

The chapter analyses what alternative leftists did to produce the subversive feelings they so desperately missed in capitalism. The struggle against this emotionally damaging society called for developing and expressing feelings, ‘fixing’ damaged personalities, overcoming isolation, and disrupting the fear-inducing emotional regime of capitalism. In that sense, politics became a kind of self-therapeutization that required constantly working on the self. The chapter discusses how leftists tried to accomplish their therapeutic goals, e.g., in consciousness-raising groups, in communes, and in moments of collective activism, such as festivals and demonstrations, that created a sense of intense exuberance. It particularly highlights the role of bodily intimacy, including questions of sexuality. Building on Monique Scheer’s conceptualization of emotions as practices, it analyses what leftists did in order to have the feelings of intimacy and intensity they longed for. Based on an understanding of how emotions work, leftists tried to produce feelings, with varying success, by engaging in a variety of emotional and bodily experiments. The chapter provides a discussion of left-wing critiques of these therapeutic practices.
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The Emotional Politics of the Alternative Left
West Germany, 1968–1984
, pp. 167 - 221
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2018

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  • Searching for Intimacy
  • Joachim C. Häberlen, University of Warwick
  • Book: The Emotional Politics of the Alternative Left
  • Online publication: 20 September 2018
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108559201.005
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  • Searching for Intimacy
  • Joachim C. Häberlen, University of Warwick
  • Book: The Emotional Politics of the Alternative Left
  • Online publication: 20 September 2018
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108559201.005
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Searching for Intimacy
  • Joachim C. Häberlen, University of Warwick
  • Book: The Emotional Politics of the Alternative Left
  • Online publication: 20 September 2018
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108559201.005
Available formats
×