Domonkos Sik

While several separate researches focus on either the phenomenological description of depression, or on the modernization theoretical analysis of the structural transformations responsible for its emergence, the combination of both perspectives is still rare. The article aims at filling this gap by analysing modernization from the perspective of the phenomenological preconditions of depression. A depressed lifeworld is characterized by burdensome embodiment, disorganization of linear time, existential hopelessness and guilt, loss of agency and disturbed intersubjectivity. The ideal!typical late medieval and early modern constellations are described according to these dimensions in order to identify the structural transformations resulting in the increased prevalence of depression. Even if the medieval era is characterized by the naturalization of suffering, limited agency and lacking worldly hope, these experiences are counterbalanced by an eschatological horizon of time providing a transcendental framework for resolving guilt, and, furthermore, a continuous presence of other persons around preventing complete isolation and consequent despair. During early modernity, such formula has changed: the gradual expansion of agency promising control over suffering and enjoyment lead to the emergence of a parallel horizon of worldly time and ambiguities of intersubjectivity. In order to handle these ambiguities and improve worldly control, the modern notion of property as absolute dominion was born, which by linking the potential of control to the detachment from the others resulted in a dangerous compound. Being deprived from property or being failed by it, renders the subject helpless: as the totality of the lifeworld dependent on ownership collapses, depression emerges.

The article aims at analysing online depression forums enabling lay reinterpretation and criticism of expert biomedical discourses. Firstly, two contrasting interpretations of depression are reconstructed: expert psy-discourses are confronted with the phenomenological descriptions of lay experiences, with a special emphasis on online forums as empirical platforms hosting such debates. After clarifying the general theoretical stakes concerning contested 'depression narratives', the results of an online ethnography are introduced: the main topics appearing in online discussions are summarised (analysing how the abstract tensions between lay and expert discourses appear in the actual discussions), along with the idealtypical discursive logics (analysing pragmatic advises, attempts of reframing self-narratives and expressions of unconditional recognition). Finally, based on these analyses an attempt is made to explore the latent functionality of online depression forums by referring to a secular 'ritual healing' existing as an unre-flected, contingent potential.

The article aims at reconstructing how pain is used in contemporary societies in the process of engraving power. Firstly, a social phenomenological analysis of pain is conducted: Husserl's and Merleau-Ponty's ideas are used for clarifying the experience of pain itself; Elaine Scarry's analyses are overviewed in order to reconstruct how pain contributes to the establishing of power. Secondly, this complex approach is applied in early modern context: the parallel processes of the decline of a tran-scendental and the emergence of a medical interpretation of pain is introduced, along with the marginalization of violence. Thirdly, the era characterized by the triumph of medical pain management is analysed: it is argued that the constitutive role of pain in establishing power does not cease to exist with the emergence of technologies of discursive governance (Foucault); it is an open question, what sort of power is engraved through pain understood in strictly medical frames. Keywords Pain · Phenomenology · Biopower · Early modernity · Late modernity · Medicalization Physical pain is one of the most elementary human experiences. On the one hand, it is a physiological state of the body; on the other hand, an unignorable impression demanding interpretation. Such dual nature locates pain at the borderland of the biological and the cultural. 1 Due to its uncomfortable or in some cases unbearable impact, every society develops ways to deal with it. These include interpretative frameworks (describing its origins), technologies of treatment and moral economies (defining the related normative order). However, pain is not only a pre-given phenomenon originating from external sources implying countermeasures. It is also * Domonkos Sik

Despite its undisputed importance, fear is yet to become a distinct research area for social theory. However, without a clear conceptualization of fear, the explanation of significant phenomena, such as the risk-related anxiety or the conflict of the global and the local, remains incomplete. This article aims at reintroducing fear at the fundamental level of social integration. First, the social contract theories of Hobbes and Rousseau are reinterpreted in order to identify a negative (based on fear) and a positive (based on hope) motivational basis of self-limiting one's freedom of pursuing individual goals. These motivations for cooperation are the prerequisite of any society, as their absence results in disintegration. While social contract theories analyse them in detail, social theories forget about this level and focus on the mechanisms of action coordination. From the perspective of the two types of motivation for cooperation, two modalities of integration mechanisms identified by classical (Weber, Durkheim, Habermas) and late modern (Beck, Castells) social theories are elaborated. Based on such a model, the contemporary expansion of fear is explained as a consequence of the upset balance of the two modalities, leading to the predominance of negative integration. Although fear is considered to be a universal emotion, its prevalence is affected by many social factors. Most theories of late modernity argue that the integration mechanisms capable of reliably handling social contingencies are dissolving, thus fear and anxiety are

This article aims at grounding critical theories with the help of psy discourses. Even if the relationship between the two disciplines has always been a controversial one, the article argues that therapeutic knowledge that accesses empirical forms of social suffering may offer important insights for critical theory. This general argument is demonstrated by complementing the theories of Bourdieu and Habermas with a clinical description of depression. First, the limitations of the capabilities of these influential theories in terms of how they can be used to conceptualize the variety of social suffering are introduced. Second, the psy discourses on depression are reviewed to identify and highlight latent references to the social. Third, by combining models of depressive suffering and various distortions of integration, an extended normative basis is elaborated. Instead of solely criticizing inequalities or distortions of communication, those social constellations are criticized that trap actors by producing a homogenous pattern of suffering. The relationship between critical theories and descriptions of psychopathologies has always been a controversial one. Following classic approaches like those of Goffman (1961) and Foucault (2006), critical theories tend to look at the knowledge provided by psychiatry and psychology as epistemologically problematic and morally questionable.

The  paper  analyses  young  people’s  interpretation  of  the  past,  evaluation  of  the  present  and  political  behaviour  patterns  based  on  semi - structured  interviews  (n=60)  conducted  in  two  contrasting  constellations    of    modernization,    Sopron    and    Ózd. First    the  perc eption of the most pressing social and political problems, second  the  potential  of  political  and  civic  actions  are  compared. Finally  an  attempt is made to outline  a “hopeless” and an “indifferent” idealtype of political culture. Together they create the opportunity for both the  birth  of  antidemocratic  tendencies  and  the  space  in  which  they  can  evolve.    In    this    sense    they    provide    the    preconditions    for  “mainstreaming the extreme” that is the incubation of radicalism in  Hungary.

The paper explores the relevance of critical theories of modernity in the research of memory  transmission and political socialization. Firstly, the relevant concepts of Habermas, Giddens and Bourdieu  are overviewed. Secondly, the notion of political culture and memory transmission are reinterpreted from  the perspective of these theories, revealing different sources and forms of radicalism. Finally, divergent con - stellations of modernization are reintroduced as the broadest context of the processes of political formation.

The essay is aimed at answering the question: what are the special difficulties of civic socialization in post-socialist democracies? In order to elaborate an answer, first a general theory of civic socialization has to be reconstructed, which can be used as a reference point – for this purpose Habermas’ model of a communicative-intentional socialization is evoked. Second, those special difficulties have to be identified, which reveal the limits of such a general theory – at this point Bourdieu’s theory of pre-intentional habitus is used. Third, a way has to be introduced capable of overcoming these difficulties – here Arendt’s ideas on the original impression of freedom prove to be helpful. As a conclusion I argue that the Habermasian model of democratic socialization is incapable of providing an analytical framework for the special problems of post-transition condition, as it can not grasp the key problem caused by the anti-democratic habitus emerged during the state socialism. A pre-intentional change requires stronger impressions than mere arguments; such is the elementary impression of freedom experienced during “action in public sphere”.

The following essay is aimed at confining the scope of The Theory of Communicative Action apropos of the problem of personal identity. For Habermas the notion of personal identity may be derived directly from the conclusions of his social theory: it is the specific part of the lifeworld (the meanings connected to the self) reproduced via communicative action. As communicative action is the mechanism of social integration as well, it is impossible to describe theoretically a personal identity that is distinct from the social in the Habermasian approach. This problem is solved in the paper with the help of Foucault’s ideas on social power and subjectivation. Foucault introduces a constitutive dimension of power: he originates the modern subject from the individualization of power relations. By examining the subject in its opposition to social power, he offers an opportunity to describe a personal identity that is distinct from the social. In my opinion, by approaching to the concept of communicative action from a Foucaultian perspective, certain elements of power in the series of speech acts (that is certain dogmatic language uses) may be introduced as the expressions of the opposition against the logic of action coordination referring to the contours of personal identity. These dogmatic language uses may be specified based on the Kohlbergian-Habermasian ideas on moral development. In these cases the dogmatic language use does not require emancipation as it refers to personal identity, in this sense it reveals the limits of the scope of communicative rationality. In the final part of the paper the recognition-theoretical presuppositions of personal identity are introduced.

The essay aims at reinterpreting the process of Hungarian transition from the
perspective of the Habermasian social theory. According to Habermas’ theory the fundamental
level of the analysis of social phenomena is critical reflection on action coordination
mechanisms. Therefore the transition is analyzed from this perspective, on the level of action
coordination. The characteristics of action coordination in state socialism are reconstructed
with the help of Elemér Hankiss’ observations on “negative modernization”, “second society”
and “hybrid society”. In these different phases of state socialism public action coordination
mechanisms were continuously distorted by the ideological power of the ruling state party
(even if the form and measure of the distortion changed over time), which obstructed the
differentiation of autonomous systems. After the transition the source of distortion was gone,
so the question arises whether a transformation of action coordination has occurred or not. In
the second part of the essay four scenarios of social change are introduced in order to evaluate
the transformation of action coordination by reinterpreting relevant empirical researches.

Szolidaritás nélkül semmilyen társulás sem képzelhető el. Abban az értelemben mindenki rá van utalva a többiekre, hogy a szenvedés pillanataiban rászorul materiális vagy szimbolikus segítségnyújtásukra. Emellett mindenkivel szemben megfogalmazódnak a többiekért hozott áldozatokra és erőfeszítésekre vonatkozó elvárások, kijelölve a segítés normatív kereteit.

A modernizáció következtében a szenvedésre adott közösségi válaszokat fokozatosan felváltották a társadalombiztosítás logikáján alapuló szakértői intézmények. A globális információs társadalom kialakulásával párhuzamosan azonban ezek is válságba kerültek. Az így előállt helyzetben az az egyik legfontosabb kérdés, hogy képes-e átvenni a felbomló rendszer helyét a hálózati szolidaritás flexibilis formája, vagy a diszfunkcionalitás és dezintegráció válik meghatározóvá.

Ennek megválaszolásához azokat a helyzeteket kell elemeznünk, melyekben eldől, hogy a szenvedés különböző formáihoz adekvát segítési gyakorlatok kapcsolódnak-e. E vizsgálódás során egyrészt annak a megértése kulcsfontosságú, hogy a szenvedés maga látható-e  vagy prekoncepciók rejtik el a potenciális segítők elől. Másrészt azt kell megtudnunk, hogy a szenvedés visszahat-e társadalmi folyamatokra, vagy észlelői közönyösek maradnak irányában.

E könyvben arra teszek kísérletet, hogy az előítéletektől és eldologiasodástól egyaránt mentes szolidaritás feltételeit rekonstruáljam és felvázoljam egy a késő modernitás társadalmi szenvedéseit kezelni képes szociális munka körvonalait.

Annak ellenére, hogy a kritikai elméletek célja a társadalmi okokra visszavezethető szenvedés feltárása, annak határállapotai sokáig nem váltak önálló elemzés tárgyává. A társadalmi szenvedés mibenlétének és hatásának jellemzése ugyanis sok szempontból kivezet a társadalomtudományok területéről: olyan tapasztalatokra utal, melyeknek a fizikai fájdalom és a lelki megpróbáltatások egyaránt szerves részét képezik, miközben nyelvi kifejezhetőségük korlátozott.

A szenvedés empirikus formáival azok a terápiás gyakorlatok kerülnek közvetlen kapcsolatba, amik csökkentésükre vagy megszűntetésükre irányulnak. A kritikai elméletek és a pszicho-tudományok közti viszony azonban kölcsönösen távolságtartó: az előbbiek leginkább a társadalmi különbségeket „naturalizáló” hatalmi komplexum részeként tekintenek az utóbbiakra, azok pedig magyarázatukban hajlamosak alábecsülni a társadalmi komponensek jelentőségét.
A könyvben arra teszek kísérletet, hogy e távolságot áthidalva, a kritikai elméletek számára hasznosítsam a mentális zavarok pszicho-tudományokban kidolgozott leírásait. Az olyan tünetegyüttesekre mint a depresszió, generalizált szorongás vagy szerfüggőség a társadalmi szenvedés határállapotaiként tekintek. Ebből kiindulva pedig arra a kérdésre keresek választ, hogy az olyan különböző integrációs logikán alapuló társulások torzulásai mint a mezők (Bourdieu), a kommunikatív cselekvési (Habermas) vagy éppen elismerési hálózatok (Honneth) miként járulhatnak hozzá létrejöttükhöz.