Alain Ehrenberg

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The French sociologist Alain Ehrenberg during Forum Liberation 2010 in Rennes.

Alain Ehrenberg (* 1950 in Paris ) is a French sociologist .

Live and act

Alain Ehrenberg works as a sociologist at the Center Edgar-Morin . He is co-director of the research group “Psychotropes, politique, société” at the Center national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) and director of the “Center de recherche Psychotropes, Santé mental, Société (Cesames)”.

"The Exhausted Self"

The book "The exhausted self" (original title: La Fatigue d'être soi - dépression et société [the tiredness of being yourself - depression and society], Paris 1998; German 2004) is part of a planned trilogy about the modern concept of individuality or personality . In it Ehrenberg creates a comprehensive sociological interpretation of the epidemic spread of depressive illnesses in the present. For him - like the increase in alcohol addiction - it is a reaction to the omnipresent expectation of the individual person to shape life in a mature and self-determined manner.

Ehrenberg describes the changes in the disease models that have been used since Sigmund Freud to this day and explanations for what was called "depression" at a given time. He shows how the changes in norms in society and parallel to them the changes in the explanatory approaches and in the diagnoses for the "depression" as well as the media dissemination of the contemporary conceptions of depression lead to an increase in what is currently under depressive symptoms is understood (in western countries). Ehrenberg's statement is not that there is a fixed entity “depression”, which has increased per se due to today's social circumstances and norm changes, but he wants to show how the definitions and explanatory models of depression, the practices of diagnosis, the treatment approaches and their actors (psychiatrists, general practitioners) have changed over the years and how this results today in an increase in depression noted by psychiatrists and general practitioners. With regard to the change in norms, Ehrenberg says that in the place of obedience and discipline with the general spread of a "culture of autonomy " there has been decision-making ability and personal initiative, so that nowadays the individual is no longer in his discipline and compliance with the rules, but in drive and Action competence is measured. This demand made on oneself goes hand in hand with exhaustion and uncertainty about identity and action. In the past, according to Ehrenberg, melancholy was the disease of the "exceptional person", while in today's democracies everyone is called upon to be an exceptional person: "If melancholy was a peculiarity of the extraordinary person, then depression is an expression of a popularization of the extraordinary" .

In this respect, depression today is socially conceived as a “disease of responsibility ” and “the typical pathology of democratic people”, whereas in earlier decades it was conceived entirely differently. Ehrenberg recognizes in the current conception of the Depression a paradoxical reversal of the claim of modernity to liberate the person (as “ subject ”) from traditional ties and traditions. At the same time, he embeds his analysis in far-reaching historical mentality (“responsibility instead of guilt”) and political contexts, which is why his book can also be understood as a criticism of the neoliberal ideology of the individual who is strong in action and decision-making.

Fonts (selection)

  • Together with Jean-Pierre Yahi and Patrick Zylberman: Archanges, guerriers, sportifs et petits pervers. Genèse d'un sport de compétition et destin de la violence physique. Analysis of the politiques des promoteurs japonais et français du karaté, de l'implantation à l'institution, 1953-1976 , Comité d'organisation des recherches appliquées sur le développement économique et social, 1977–1980.
  • Le Corps Militaire. Politique et pédagogie en démocratie , Aubier-Montaigne, 1983.
  • Le Culte de la performance , Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1991.
  • Drogues, politique et société . Sous la you. de Alain Ehrenberg, Paris: Le Monde Ed., 1992.
  • L'Individu incertain , Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1995.
  • Vivre avec les drogues . Regulations, politiques, marches, usages. Dir. Par Alain Ehrenberg, Paris: Seuil, 1996 (Communications; 62).
  • La Fatigue d'être soi - dépression et société , Paris: Odile Jacob, 1998.
    • The exhausted self . Depression and Society in the Present. Translated from the French by Manuela Lenzen and Martin Klaus, Frankfurt am Main: Campus-Verl., 2004 (Frankfurt contributions to sociology and social philosophy; 6).
    • The exhausted self. Depression and Society in the Present. From the French by Manuela Lenzen and Martin Klaus, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, ​​2008 (Suhrkamp taschenbuchwissenschaft; 1875).
    • The exhausted self. Depression and Society in the Present. Translated from the French by Manuela Lenzen and Martin Klaus, Frankfurt am Main: Campus Verlag (Campus Library) 2nd, expanded edition 2015.
  • Alain Ehrenberg, Iring Fetscher , Felix Heidenreich , Elisabeth Krüger , Jan Müller, Angela Oster : Rethinking work. Repenser le travail , Lit Verlag 2010.
  • La Société du malaise , Paris: Odile Jacob, Paris.
    • The discomfort in society . Translated from the French by Jürgen Schröder. Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3518585610
  • La mécanique des passions. Cerveau, comportement, société , Paris: Odile Jacob, 2018
    • The mechanics of passions. Brain, behavior, society. Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3518587300

Movie

  • Nervousness in the civilization. Du culte de la performance à l'effondrement psychique , Conférence d'Alain Ehrenberg, Université de tous les savoirs, SFRS, Vanves, 2001, 76 '(DVD)

literature

  • Axel Honneth : Foreword , in: Alain Ehrenberg: The exhausted self. Depression and Society in the Present, Frankfurt am Main 2004, pp. 7-10.
  • Gunnar Kaiser: The compulsion for self-realization and its consequences . Alain Ehrenberg analyzes a depressed society, in: literaturkritik.de. No. 3, March 2005.
  • Elisabeth Summer: Does society make you depressed? Alain Ehrenberg's theory of the “exhausted self” in the light of social-scientific and therapeutic findings, Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, 2008.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alain Ehrenberg: The exhausted self. Depression and Society in the Present. Frankfurt am Main 2004. p. 262.
personal data
SURNAME Ehrenberg, Alain
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French sociologist
DATE OF BIRTH 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris