Escapism

A review and investigation of current empirical studies and tendencies in the escapism problem is presented. It is also substantiated that the future research projects should be concentrated on designing and validating a fundamental theoretical approach of escapism. The integrative theory should be able to explain the phenomenon in a broader meaning and integrate its two opposite poles — negative and positive escapism.

Although recreational dancing is associated with increased physical and psychological
well-being, little is known about the harmful effects of excessive dancing. The aim of the
present study was to explore the psychopathological factors associated with dance addiction.
The sample comprised 447 salsa and ballroom dancers (68% female, mean age: 32.8
years) who danced recreationally at least once a week. The Exercise Addiction Inventory
(Terry, Szabo, & Griffiths, 2004) was adapted for dance (Dance Addiction Inventory, DAI).
Motivation, general mental health (BSI-GSI, and Mental Health Continuum), borderline personality
disorder, eating disorder symptoms, and dance motives were also assessed. Five
latent classes were explored based on addiction symptoms with 11% of participants belonging
to the most problematic class. DAI was positively associated with psychiatric distress,
borderline personality and eating disorder symptoms. Hierarchical linear regression model
indicated that Intensity (ß=0.22), borderline (ß=0.08), eating disorder (ß=0.11) symptoms,
as well as Escapism (ß=0.47) and Mood Enhancement (ß=0.15) (as motivational factors) together
explained 42% of DAI scores. Dance addiction as assessed with the Dance Addiction
Inventory is associated with indicators of mild psychopathology and therefore warrants
further research.

Проведен анализ теоретических подходов к проблеме эскапизма в философии, социальных науках, литературоведении, классической и современной психологии. Выделены основные тенденции в изучении ухода от реальности: нейтральная (философский подход), негативная (социологический подход), позитивная (литературоведение), амбивалентная (классическая отечественная психология). Обосновывается необходимость изучения эскапизма в рамках интегративного подхода, синтезирующего его позитивную и деструктивную функции.

The phenomenon of escapism, extensively analyzed in the key mechanism of escape into the world of illusion and imagination in numerous sociological and psychological studies, has not been researched from a theological perspective or described in the context of pilgrimage yet. Nevertheless, the existing studies encourage this type of reflection, indicating that escapism seems to be one of the ways to solve social problems by turning towards religiousness. This is the case for pilgrims on their journey to the tomb of St. James the Apostle in Santiago de Compostela. The studies of pilgrims reveal the escapist motivations behind the decision to go on a journey and the therapeutic effects of the pilgrimage. In this context, the pilgrims' escapism is a creative process of transformation that creates something new.

The popular culture of Japan draws and consolidates fans from various geographical domains and multiple backgrounds. Its engagingly rich heredity and culture is much diverse and proliferates around comics (manga), games, animation (anime) and music. These various sub genres of Japan’s popular culture and the various terminologies associated with them and their audiences frame Western fandom. Cosplay (“costume play”) is a fan culture that has an active camaraderie where fans create their costumes which are inspired by fictional characters from comics, games, animation and music. Cosplay is a fine blend of both its origin terms: “costume” and “play” since a cosplayer portrays characteristics of both these words – dressing up as a fictional character and also enact the character’s life and situations with full realization that they are trying to capture the life of someone, temporarily, who does not exist in reality. In this process happens a blurring of reality, entry into the world of fiction, a creation of new identity through this narrative resulting in the birth of an entirely new persona which is supreme in itself. (Dorfman, 2007) According to Judith Butler, the practice of enacting various identities, genders and switching between them and trying new ones or performing multiple identities, like in Cosplay, allows individuals to redefine, discover, stretch and enhenhance their own sense of identity. Thus cosplayers slip in and out of identities by switching between costumes and perform their persona by enacting the “play”. Thus the concept of identity is in a constant influx where public and private realms merge creating a sense of fragmentation and decentered self giving rise to multiple conflicting identities.
This is a postmodern concept in all senses by creating a hyper-reality where there is a disruption of the dominance of high culture by popular culture formulating a hybrid culture. This signifies that we are living in the postmodern space of virtuality which defines hobbies and connections and we ourselves are unsure of our own structured identity defined by societal norms. In this technology driven age cosplay also allows a certain form of escapism and interaction with the physical world through conversion of hobbies from a screen-centric medium to a concrete physical world.

Bu makale bir tür kurtuluş reçetesine dönen doğaya bedensel, zamansal ve mekânsal deneyimler üzerinden odaklanmaktadır. Önceleri kent tarzı yaşamı arzulayan modern birey artık kentten sıkılmış ve yeni arayışlar içine girmiştir. Bugün bu yönelimin merkezi doğadır. Bu açıdan uzak coğrafyalar üzerinde cereyan eden geri dönüş hikâyesini tartışmanın tam vaktidir. Çünkü büyük kentlere büyük hayallerle göç edenlerin beklentileri imtihan edilmiş, düş kırıklıkları yaşanmış ve yıllar sonra terkedilen eski köyler yeniden özlenmeye başlanmıştır. Bu bağlamda mazi ve hatıra mekânı olarak doğa ve taşra el değmemiş ve bozulmamış olarak tasavvur edilmiş ve kentin mutlak bir antitezi olarak benimsenmiştir. Burada beliren ana soru bakir ve arınmış doğanın kentleşmeyi merkezileştiren modern toplum figürasyonu tarafından kapsam
dışı tutulup tutulmadığıdır. Başka bir deyişle, kentte bunalan modern birey için doğaya kaçış ya da taşraya dönüş kalıcı bir çözüm mü yoksa geçici bir avuntu mudur? Tüm bu ikircikli sorunsallar bu çalışmanın çerçevesini oluşturmaktadır.

In this essay, the overt ideological message and the internal system for structuring gameplay in Fallout 3 (2008) have been analyzed from a socio-anthropological perspective developed by sociologist Anthony Giddens. The analysis concludes that the enjoyability of digital RPGs derives in part from the way their gameplay provides escapism from modern society’s socially alienating qualities, and indulgence in its socioeconomic motivational basis. This offers a new approach to both the study of game addiction and the broader question of why we play games. Furthermore, these conclusions contradict the socio-ideological predisposition expressed in Fallout 3’s storyline, giving support to the critical claims of several Marxist and cultural study theorists who view games and the video game industry as having a negative effect on both the critical capacity of the individual and that of society as a whole.

This essay examines two films that have been compared only superficially, Jim Henson's /Labyrinth/ and Guillermo del Toro's /El laberinto del fauno/ (/Pan's Labyrinth/), as key examples of recent works of fantasy that have treated seriously the notorious charge of "escapism." Both films first dramatize how fantastic narrative can pose a potential danger in its inherent disengagement from reality, yet each works out a defense of fantasy on film and in print that parallels certain trends in the wider critical conversation about the value of "escape literature." Labyrinth presents a modest argument in favor of moderation and against mass-market commoditization, while del Toro offers a more ambitious complication or at least de-Christianization of Tolkien's touchstone defense of "fairy-stories."

Researchers across disciplines have been studying the psychology of fans for decades. Seeking to better understand fan behavior and the various factors motivating fans, researchers have studied dozens of variables in hundreds of studies of different fan groups. To date, however, there have been relatively few attempts to integrate this sizable body of work, pulling together findings across from the field to with a broader, more holistic perspective. This book does exactly that, identifying and concisely summarizing research on 28 separate lines of inquiry on the psychology of fans and integrating it all into an empirically-validated model known as the CAPE model. Useful as a textbook for a fandom studies course and as a handbook for fan researchers, this book is essential reading for anyone looking to better understand the state of fan psychology and wanting to conduct their own research exploring the ins and outs of fans of all sorts!

Japanese culture is an influential power among many rising global cultural flows. Japanese animation (anime) is a representative of Japanese popular cultural products which are spread over the world. The fictional reality created by anime is able to carry a wide range of meanings and values, which anime audiences can interact with. Owning to anime's ability to create pseudo-environment, anime can to some extent affect people's perception on Japanese culture. In addition, behind the consumption of anime and subcultures derive from it can be the pursuit to a world of less burdens and duties, or a rival between individual's appeal and the mainstream society's expectations.

My latest book was released in July 2021 from Routledge.

From the description:

This book suggests that escapism – the desire to leave one’s physical or emotional circumstances for an ideal alternative – is a way to understand the social conflicts that structure our world. Considering this phenomenon across psychology, labour and cultural studies, the author engages with critical theorists such as Lukács, Fromm and Marcuse to examine how escapism appears in our minds, workplaces and utopian imaginaries from fiction to music. In this study, escapism emerges as a constitutive feature of the late capitalist lifeworld – a feature that must be understood in order to create social change.

Defining escapism as a new field of study, Late Escapism and Contemporary Neoliberalism: Alienation, Work and Utopia suggests that the phenomenon has much to teach us about contemporary consciousness and how we resist and reshape the edicts of neoliberalism. As such, this book will appeal to scholars of cultural and critical theory, social movements and political sociology.

The phenomenon of escapism, extensively analyed in the key mechanism of escape into the world of illusion and imagination in numerous sociological and psychological studies, has not yet been researched from a theological perspective or described in the context of pilgrimage. Nevertheless, the existing studies encourage this type of reflection, indicating that escapism seems to be one of the ways to solve social problems by turning towards religiousness. This is the case for pilgrims on their journey to the tomb of St. James the Apostle in Santiago de Compostela. The studies of pilgrims reveal the escapist motivations behind the decision to go on a journey and the therapeutic effects of the pilgrimage. In this context, the pilgrims' escapism is a creative process of transformation that creates something new.

Though originally derived from eighteenth century German Romanticism and present in cultural and literary spheres since then, the concept of Sehnsucht, or life-longings, has only been explored within psychology since around 2007. Sehnsucht in psychology is defined by Dana Kotter-Grühn et al in “What is it we are longing for? Psychological and demographic factors influencing the contents of Sehnsucht (life longings)” (2009) as a desire for alternative “experiences of life” which focus on “fantasies about ideal, alternative realities” (428). Considering these aspects of how Sehnsucht is meant to function psychologically, the relationship to Science Fiction is an interesting one, especially as it pertains to time travel. Science Fiction’s ability to literalise the metaphor can make desires for an alternative life less unattainable due to the genre’s capacity to fulfil longings that would normally reside outside of reality, especially when these fantasies are centred around escaping one’s current time period. In this article I explore the way in which Sehnsucht highlights this connection between time travel, escapism, and fantasy within Science Fiction. The desire to escape can be seen in numerous texts by Alfred Bester, but the ways in which Bester engages with the psychology of escape in “Hobson’s Choice” (1953) and “Disappearing Act” (1953) are particularly relevant when examining his work through the lens of Sehnsucht. In this article I use recent psychological research into how life-longings operate to reframe understandings of these texts by examining ideas of longing and fulfilment in Science Fiction and the relationship with Sehnsucht. Through this, I argue how ideas of time travel as escapist fantasy, and of literature in general which engages with the psychological desire for a better life, can be reformulated to consider how and why these fantasies are engaged with and fulfilled, for both the characters and readers.

“Is it possible to consider an author separately from the environment he lives or his own life?” This question has been one of the most important questions debated by many critics for many years. With the progress and development of psychology, it is accepted fact that it is almost impossible to write a work completely abstracted from the life experiences and the social environment in which we interact. If the author that we are talking about is Edgar Allan Poe who is one the greatest poets who used the unfortunate circumstances of his life to write great works and experienced numerous difficulties and challenges in his forty year life, this question must examine thoroughly. This study reviews “Shadow — a Parable” in order to show how we can capture stunning clues about Poe’s life and the society he lived and also examine whether he was influenced the unfortunate circumstances of his life or not while he was writing this story.

This paper examines the functional benefits of being a fan as mediators between identification with the fan interest (i.e., fanship) and display of group membership to others. After a series of principal components analyses and a factor analysis on an initial pool of fandom function items, we arrived at a measure containing three factors representing the benefits of being a fan including (1) the purpose or meaning in life, (2) the escape from everyday life stressors, and (3) establishing and maintaining social connections. The relationship between identification with the fan interest (i.e., fanship) and display of fan identity was mediated by purpose in life and social connections. The results support the notion that fans display fan group membership to engender connections with friends and family.

This note examines the evolving economic partnership between Japan and the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and reviews prospects for the future in light of the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in 2015.
This document is available to download at: http://www.unescap.org/resources/japan-asean-economic-partnership-prospects-2015-and-beyond-trade-insights-issue-no-5

There is little reason to believe that fan-related personality tests, which tell fans what type of person they are based on their favorite fan content, are valid or reliable. Nevertheless, fan-related personality tests remain incredibly popular online. Building upon existing fan research, the present study tests whether fans may have other motivations for taking such personality tests, drawing upon prior research by Wann. Self-identified fans (N = 425, Mage = 26.41, SD = 8.44) completed measures regarding degree of identification with their fan interest, motivations to take fan quizzes, and frequency of taking fan personality quizzes. Highly-identified fans were found to more frequently take fan-related personality tests, an association significantly mediated by both self-esteem and escapism motivations, but not mediated by eustress, entertainment, belongingness, or family motivations. The results suggest that highly identified fans participate in more fan personality quizzes to escape from the hassles of everyday life and increase positive self-worth. These results are discussed with respect to their theoretical relevance – both for research on personality testing and on fan activities – as well as for their practical implications.

Video games, and especially roleplaying games offer a way for players to escape stress and cope with stressors. Video games are a new, and potentially unique, mechanism for telling stories. They allow a player to not only interact with a world, but to fully immerse themselves in a digital world. Being able to quite literally escape to a fantasy world where your actions matter, and you"re given control can be a great form of self-therapy for players. This study aims to examine the results of a global pandemic and quarantine on player motivations and the reasons they play video games. The study collected detailed information on the video games genres and play time of each user and how it has been affected during self-isolation. Participants were also asked a series of questions that required them to evaluate their gaming habits both prior to and during the pandemic. This information was analysed to attempt to further understand players choices, in particular during a pandemic whe...

Recently, much scholarship has investigated how social media use affects citizens' political participation, online and offline. In general, social media use has a positive but weak effect on participation. However, different use types exert a differentiated influence. While information-rich and active uses result in more participation, entertainment-oriented and passive uses lead to less participation. In this contribution, we introduce the concept of escapist Facebook use. We argue that Facebook, even if used in escapist ways, might activate users to participate politically through what we call accidental political engagement. Based on a survey of 762 Facebook users in Germany and using linear regression, we test the influence of three Facebook use types on online political participation: consumptive, participatory and productive. We find that consumptive use has a negative effect, and productive use a positive effect on online political participation. Escapism has a small positive effect. It moderates consumptive use negatively and productive use positively, strengthening existing tendencies.

The phenomenon of escapism, extensively analyzed in the key mechanism of escape into the world of illusion and imagination in numerous sociological and psychological studies, has not been researched from a theological perspective or described in the context of pilgrimage yet. Nevertheless, the existing studies encourage this type of reflection, indicating that escapism seems to be one of the ways to solve social problems by turning towards religiousness. This is the case for pilgrims on their journey to the tomb of St. James the Apostle in Santiago de Compostela. The studies of pilgrims reveal the escapist motivations behind the decision to go on a journey and the therapeutic effects of the pilgrimage. In this context, the pilgrims' escapism is a creative process of transformation that creates something new.

Istnieje wiele teorii mówiących o infantylizacji w japońskiej popkulturze i starających się zlokalizować jej źródło: czy fascynacja dziecięcą fantazją i estetyką kawaii wywodzi się z pragnienia ucieczki do beztroski przedszkolnego wieku, tuż przed wejściem w tryby rygorystycznego systemu edukacji, czy może to wynik kolektywnej historycznej traumy, spowodowanej eksplozją bomby o sugestywnej nazwie "Little Boy"? Tę drugą hipotezę rozważa "japoński Warhol", Takashi Murakami, twórca nurtu superflat.

The use of social networking sites is becoming increasingly popular. Although there are many studies investigating the problematic use of social networking sites such as Facebook, little is known about problematic Instagram use (PIU) and factors related to it. The present study developed a complex model in order to examine the mediating role of perceived feeling of presence (i.e., social, spatial, and co-presence) and escapism between using different Instagram features and PIU. A total of 333 Instagram users from a high school and a state university, aged between 14 and 23 years (M age = 17.74 years, SD = 2.37, 61% female), completed a " paper-and-pencil " questionnaire comprising measures of social presence, spatial presence, co-presence, Instagram escapism, and PIU. In addition, frequency of use of five different Instagram features (i.e., watching live streams; watching videos; looking at posted photographs; liking, commenting on others' posts; and getting likes and comments from others) were assessed using a 7-point Likert scale. Analysis indicated that watching live streams was indirectly associated with PIU via escapism, spatial presence, and co-presence. Leaving likes and comments on others' posts was both directly and indirectly associated with PIU via co-presence and escapism. Escapism mediated the relationships between social and spatial presence and co-presence and PIU. The findings of the present study appear to indicate that a minority of individuals use Instagram problematically and that problematic Instagram use is associated with the frequency of watching live streams, liking, and commenting on others' posts on Instagram, being able to feel a higher sense of presence using Instagram, and using Instagram as an escape from reality.

Ingenious-Innovative "escapism" from destructive paradigms

Those things whose form and style provide a profound perspective to the consensual way of perceiving, thinking about the perception, and influencing the feeling of the thought.

Contrary to such other cultural influences that promote and sanction dissipating distractions, as  gambling, lotteries, and other escapes of
entertainment and pleasures. If such things are accepted as an integral version of what the 'Society' could be, would it be an extension of
what we seek to escape to save our sanity and lives?

Icons’ and celebrities' provocations and outrages of thought and action broke the mold for what could be imagined . Their 'art' is celebrated,
cherished, and followed for the elan of meaningfulness it provides from the mundane drudgery that has herded life for the many.

Our AfAm culture on this continent has produced iconic forms worthy of appropriation for its more meaningful expression of human emotion, than the sterile regimentation centered around the web of
materialistic traps.

Culture is unique and sui generis, not a regurgitated menu of things that were, but that COULD BE.

https://altruisticcarnality.blogspot.com/2022/01/ingenious-innovative-escapism-from.html

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between consumer motivations, their interactions with hospitality spaces and experiential outcomes. Enhancing consumer experience is of clear interest to industry professionals. This quantitative study explores the impact of escapism and entitlement to leisure upon involvement in liminoid consumptions spaces, thereby contributing a theory of liminoid motivators within commercial hospitality.
Design/methodology/approach – This study adopts a quantitative methodology, using a survey of a sample of student night clubbers in the UK.  Data are analysed through Partial Least Squares. Findings – Hospitality consumers are positively affected by the feelings of increased involvement experiencedinconsumptionspacesthatexhibitliminoidcharacteristics.
Research limitations/implications – Surveys involve potential for error regarding respondents’ ability to agree with questionnaire statements.  Data collection was conducted in Scotland, and so, results may not be generalised to other commercial hospitality spaces outside of Scotland.
Practical implications – Hospitality consumers become more involved, and thereby more satisfied, in liminoid consumption spaces when motivated by escapism and entitlement to leisure. Attending to the liminoid motivators that drive consumers away from work and domesticity, and towards commercial hospitality spaces, will go some way towards creating the desired consumer experience.
Originality/value – This is the first quantitative study to investigate consumer motivations to escape and entitlement to leisure as antecedents of involvement in a commercial hospitality context. It develops a theory of hospitality consumption using the liminoid anthropological concept.

В статье приводятся данные исследования особенностей субъективного качества жизни и психологической адаптации у лиц с различным уровнем эскапизма. Обследовано 329 человек в возрасте 18—52 лет, проживающих в крупных городах России, комплексом из четырех методик, одна из которых — «Исследование уровня выраженности эскапизма» — представлена впервые. По сравнению с нормативной подгруппой, лица с высоким уровнем эскапизма отличаются снижением ряда таких показателей субъективного качества жизни, как: Экология, Стабильная обстановка в стране, Уверенность в завтрашнем дне, Социальное признание, Интересная работа, Здоровье, Внутренняя Гармония, Уверенность в себе, Свобода от внутренних противоречий, Личное пространство и Активная жизнь (методика «Субъективное качество жизни» Т.Н. Савченко, Г.М. Головина). Они также отличаются сниженным уровнем социально-психологической адаптации по всем показателям: Принятие себя и других, Интернальность, Эмоциональный комфорт, Стремление к доминированию (Методика СПА К. Роджерса, Р. Даймонда в адаптации Осницкого). Таким образом, функционально эскапизм может характеризоваться как компенсаторный механизм, возникающий вследствие сниженного уровня приспособленности личности к окружающей реальности, в первую очередь, социальной. Согласованность теоретических предположений с полученными эмпирическими данными подтверждает валидность представленной методики измерения уровня выраженности эскапизма и перспективность ее использования в практике эмпирических исследований.

The 1998 publication of Carla Benedetti’s Pasolini contro Calvino: Per una letteratura impura [Pasolini vs. Calvino: For An 'Impure' Literature] provoked a series of attacks in the Italian press, mostly aimed at its polemical contraposition between authors and author-functions: One the one hand, Pasolini the activist, who took on personal risk to speak truth to power through the medium of his art; and on the other hand Calvino the aesthete, darling of the international postmodern literary establishment. Debates in Italy today about the cultural legacy of the twentieth century, the state of postmodernism, and the future of Italian literary culture are still haunted by the opposition of these two figures. The debates are often compounded by a perceived opposition in the field of criticism between Benedetti’s radical supporters and conservative critics. My essay compares Benedetti’s provocative call for an impure literature alla Pasolini with one of the foundational histories of Italian literature, that of Francesco De Sanctis, where in particular the sixteenth-century figures of Machiavelli and Ariosto are opposed and the former championed. Through this double comparison, I argue that Benedetti and De Sanctis are “Machiavellian” literary critics whose future-oriented strategies of expression represent one of multiple ways that the unprecedented challenges Italian culture faces today are being confronted with tools from its past.