Fear and its vicissitudes

  • The USA has been a changed society since 9/11: the Zeitgeist either has a background of low-level angst, or when an attack occurs or a threat is sounded, the fear peaks and comes to the foreground for a time. Perhaps nothing demonstrates the degree to which fear permeates contemporary culture more than the continual presence of the measures the USA takes to be safe: airport security, the Patriot Act, the mining of formerly private information by the government, to name but a few. Can we account for the pervasive nature of fear solely by the devastating and deadly attacks 15 years ago, unspeakably horrifying though they were? This paper will explore this omnipresent fear in contemporary American culture from a psychoanalytic perspective, and in so doing hopes to shed light on the nature of that fear, why it is so persistent despite 15 years without any sequels, and what the consequences of that fear are for the American way of life. The discussion will be rounded out by linking this pervasive fear to the violence that is endemic to our age.

Download full text files

  • Summers_F_2017.pdf

    File not available?

        (You will be redirectet to a request-form. You will need the IdNo there.)
    eng

Export metadata

Additional Services

Search Google Scholar
Metadaten
Author:Frank Summers
Parent Title (English):International Forum of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 26 (No. 3, 2017), pp. 186-192.
Document Type:Articles
Language:English
Year of first Publication:2017
Release Date:2017/11/20
Format:PDF-scan upon request / PDF-Scan auf Anfrage
IdNo:Summers_F_2017
Erich Fromm's Library and Erich Fromm Archive:Articles / Artikel
Licence (German):on request / auf Anfrage
Einverstanden ✔
Diese Webseite verwendet technisch erforderliche Session-Cookies. Durch die weitere Nutzung der Webseite stimmen Sie diesem zu. Unsere Datenschutzerklärung finden Sie hier.