Homo Clausus

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Homo clausus ( Latin for "locked in, closed man") is a term introduced by Norbert Elias in sociology and describes a person whose "inside" is closed off from the "outside world".

It is a pattern of self-experience that is particularly common in so-called western-individualized civilizations, in which the “we-me balance” is not balanced, but rather tends to favor the ego. In societies of this type, the chains of functional interdependence are particularly well differentiated and are therefore difficult to understand for the individual. The ego can only perceive its dependencies to a limited extent and feels, due to the advanced specialization, as alienated in its relationships with the outside world.

Another structural peculiarity reinforces this relatively inadequate self-image . It is mainly experienced where the behavior shows a more even, more all-round and more stable self-control. In Elias' understanding of civilization ( about the process of civilization ), this means that people can curb their affects more strongly, this applies to all areas and that this pattern has solidified.

The internalized external compulsion, which has largely become self-compulsion, is experienced as a limitation and separation of the self because it increasingly prevents the individual from living out his spontaneous affects. Intimate feelings and affective behavior are more or less taboo depending on the interdependence network (also figuration) , correspondingly more often in particularly formal relationships such as at work than in friends.

The focus is only on “one side of the coin”. The own desires are only assigned to the self, the compulsion, which apparently only affects the own self, is experienced as limiting from outside, but not as originally coming from there. You can no longer see the interaction between inside and outside, accordingly you feel like a monad that experiences other people as objects outside of yourself. This fantasy armor solidifies one's own self-awareness .

A superficial communication pattern prevents the insight that others can have the same feelings as you. By exchanging less and less about your supposedly innate feelings, the idea that only you can feel in this way becomes entrenched.

literature