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Human concern as the interface between realist sociology and psychoanalysis

I’m increasingly convinced that concern, things mattering to people, provides the interface between realist sociology and psychoanalysis that I’ve been looking for. Consider this from Mari Ruti’s A World of Fragile Things loc 89:

This suggests that though redemption or existential consolation in any absolute sense is an impossible aspiration, we possess enough creative ingenuity to enter into the current of our lives in rewarding ways. As a matter of fact, to the extent that the act of renouncing transcendent ideals of redemption and consolation redirects our energies from the otherworldly to the worldly, it may enable us to better discern what in our daily lives is worth our care and solicitude. This is one sense in which psychoanalysis provides us with a new understanding of the art of living.

One way to think about analysis is the working through of structural impediments to recognising what matters to you and acting in a way which affirms that concern. It’s much harder than realist sociology tends to suggest to “discern what in our daily lives is worth our care and solicitude” such that psychoanalysis can enrich our understanding of personal and social reflexivity, without betraying the notion of agency implied in those concepts.

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