Robert Pfaller

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Robert Pfaller

Robert Pfaller (* 1962 in Vienna ) is an Austrian professor of philosophy.

Pfaller initially taught as a professor of philosophy and cultural studies at the University of Art and Industrial Design in Linz and at the Technical University of Vienna . From 2009 to October 2014 he was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Applied Arts Vienna . Then he went back to the now renamed Art University Linz .

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Pfaller's studies on interpassivity (2000) attracted international attention . Interpassivity refers to the practice of delegating one's actions and feelings to external objects, i.e. people or things. The theory of interpassivity mainly relates to the area of ​​pleasure sensations, which is why interpassivity can also be referred to as "delegated enjoyment". Is a common example of this from everyday life of the Slavoj Zizek analyzed canned laughter ( "canned laughter") in sitcoms, which laughs at our place, and so spare us the "trouble" of their own laughter. We feel so liberated as if the laughter was our own.

In his work The Illusions of Others , Pfaller develops the thesis that there are imaginations that cannot be assigned to a specific person , based on the psychoanalytic considerations of Octave Mannoni and the cultural theory of play by Johan Huizinga (" homo ludens ") . In this context, Pfaller speaks of “ illusions without an owner”.

Based on Mannoni's distinction between “croyance” and “foi”, Pfaller differentiates between two types of imaginations: imaginations with owners (“that's my opinion and that's what I stand for”) and imaginations without owners. The latter are imaginations “despite better knowledge” that cannot be rationally justified for the individual and that are expressed in everyday myths and superstitions , for example in formulations such as: “I know it's stupid, but I still have to know what's in mine Horoscope stands. ”On the contrary, this“ better knowledge ”not only does not remove superstition, it even solidifies it.

With these imaginations without an owner, a fictitious “naive observer” is deceived - a subordinate observation instance within the self , which is based only on appearances and can be deceived precisely by this.

Today's neoliberal culture sees Pfaller - on the side of the masses - characterized by avoidance of pleasure and asceticism . Forgoing pleasure becomes the desire to renounce. Pfaller takes up this idea, which goes back to Max Weber and his work The Protestant Ethics , above all in the psychologically applied stamping and reworking of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari . In their book Anti-Oedipus they write: “The fundamental question of political philosophy still remains that which Spinoza knew how to ask (and which Reich has rediscovered): Why do people fight for their bondage as if their salvation was at stake ? What makes you scream, 'More taxes! even less bread! '”And, one could add, why don't they shout with Vladimir Mayakovski's words :“ Bring on the good life ”?

Pfaller sees in the present the loss of the ability of the subjects to adequately perceive their interests - in place of the objects themselves, quite unlike in classic Protestant ethics, renunciation is desired: “We don't have a Porsche, and that's a good thing . "

Pfaller also sees changes in the world of work: The authors Luc Boltanski and Ève Chiapello speak of the fact that work and non-work can hardly be separated, there is an artist capitalism:

  • The work tasks are unclear and vague.
  • An enormous willingness to spend is required.
  • The pay for the work is uncertain.

Initiatives

In 2013 Pfaller was one of the first supporters of the Austrian initiative “Mein Veto! - Citizens Against Paternalism ”and the founders of the European initiative“ Adults for Adults. Citizens against Patronizing Politics ". Both groups of action turned (in Pfaller's own words) “against three aspects of current politics in the EU”, namely “paternalistic politics”, “biopolitics” and “pseudopolitics”, and both were a. sponsored by British American Tobacco , the second largest tobacco company in the world. In September 2013, members of the European Parliament received a letter signed by Pfaller from the "Adults for Adults" initiative, which called for votes to be taken against the planned tightening of the EU Tobacco Directive - otherwise a relapse into National Socialist euthanasia policy was to be feared. In a parodic way, "a bottle of French red wine, the label of which showed warning shock pictures of liver damage" was enclosed.

Awards

In 2007 Robert Pfaller was awarded The Missing Link for his book The Illusions of Others . PSZ Prize for Psychoanalysis and ... awarded. This prize was donated by the Psychoanalytic Seminar Zurich (PSZ) on the occasion of its 30th anniversary and was awarded for the first time in 2007.

The American Board and Academy of Psychoanalysis (ABAPsa) presented Pfaller with the Award for Best Books Published in 2014 for the English version of its study The Illusions of Others. About the pleasure principle in culture (On the Pleasure Principle in Culture: Illusions Without Owners).

In 2020 he was awarded the Paul Watzlawick Ring of Honor , donated by the Vienna Medical Association, based on the decision of the jury .

Publications

  • Althusser . The silence in the text. Epistemology, Psychoanalysis and Nominalism in Louis Althusser's Theory of Reading . Fink, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-7705-3115-9 .
  • Negation and its Reliabilities. An empty subject for ideology? In: Slavoj Žižek (Ed.): Cogito and the Unconscious . Duke University Press, Durham 1998, pp. 225-246.
  • Interpassivity . Studies on delegated enjoyment (as ed.) Springer, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-211-83303-X .
  • The illusions of others. About the pleasure principle in culture . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 3-518-12279-7 .
  • No more comedy! On the creeping predominance of the tragic in our culture (as ed.) Sonderzahl, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-85449-226-X .
  • The filthy holy and the pure reason. Symptoms of contemporary culture . Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2008, ISBN 978-3-596-17729-5 .
  • Aesthetics of Interpassivity . Philo Fine Arts, Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-86572-650-6 .
  • Do you ever have a fire? (as ed.) Beate Hofstadler, Löcker
  • What is worth living for. Elements of materialistic philosophy , S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2011; Paperback, ibid. 2012, ISBN 978-3-596-18903-8 .
  • Second worlds. And other elixirs of life , S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2012, ISBN 978-3-10-059034-3 .
  • The last days of clichés. Transmissions in Psychoanalysis, Art and Society (as ed. With Eva Laquièze-Waniek) Turia + Kant, Vienna / Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-85132-726-7 .
  • Short sentences about the good life , Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2015, ISBN 978-3-596-18917-5 .
  • Adult language. About their disappearance from politics and culture , Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2017, ISBN 978-3-10-490443-6 / ISBN 978-3-596-29877-8 .
  • The flashing weapons: On the power of form , Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2020, ISBN 978-3-10-059035-0 .

literature

  • Helmut Mauró: Real life plays on the surface . Review. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung, July 10, 2020, p. 11

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. Slavoj Žižek : Love your symptom like yourself. Jacques Lacan's psychoanalysis and the media. Berlin: Merve 1991, p. 50.
  2. ↑ Robert Pfaller: The Incredible. Why there are cults outside or inside the religions. ( Memento of September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) In: .copy . (PDF file; 39kB)
  3. ↑ a b Magical Enlightenment. In: Der kleine Bund , December 1, 2007 (PDF file; 61 kB)
  4. ↑ Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari: Anti-Oedipus . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1977, p. 39.
  5. ↑ Beloved asceticism and baby culture. ( Memento from October 16, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) An interview with Robert Pfaller, July 31, 2000.
  6. ↑ stress. A stress test. In: deutschlandfunknova.de. August 26, 2017, accessed on January 21, 2019 (moderator: Hans-Jürgen Bartsch; lecturer: Robert Pfaller, philosopher).
  7. ↑ a b “To be sensible in a sensible way”. In: novo-argumente.com. October 29, 2014, accessed on January 21, 2019 (interview with Robert Pfaller).
  8. ↑ "My Veto": Who is behind the strange initiative? In: trend.at. May 29, 2013, accessed January 21, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Alois Berger: EU Tobacco Directive - Under pressure from lobbyists. In: deutschlandfunk.de. December 8, 2013, accessed January 21, 2019 .
  10. ↑ "Dear Member of the European Parliament!" (PDF) In: greens-efa.eu. Citizens Against Patronizing Politics, September 2013, accessed on January 21, 2019 (in English, package to MEP Isabella Lövin; digitized version).
  11. ↑ Robert Pfaller: Adult Language. About their disappearance from politics and culture. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2017, p. 103.
  12. ↑ CONGRATULATIONS to Dr. Robert Pfaller. In: facebook.com/KunstuniLinz. Art University Linz , November 10, 2015, accessed on January 21, 2019 .
  13. ↑ Philosopher Robert Pfaller receives the Paul Watzlawick Ring of Honor , Die Presse of May 6, 2020, accessed June 28, 2020
personal data
SURNAME Pfaller, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian philosopher and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH 1962
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna