Freud and the question of mediated social behaviour

Abstract

This paper advances an argument for the understanding of ‘mediated social behaviour’, that is, behaviour that seems to be somehow connected to the reception of mediaimages. The argument proceeds in two stages. Firstly, it is argued that contemporary culture is characterized by a tendency to weaken the distinction between images and reality. This may be termed an ‘aestheticist’ tendency, and the kind of ‘reality’ it gives rise to, ‘hyperreality’. Secondly, Freud's early theory of the mind is utilized to show that, in the absence of the ‘secondary process’ (thought and language), image-mediated behaviour can be understood in a manner analogous to what he described as ‘hallucinatory wish-fulfilment’ at the level of the ‘primary process’ of the unconscious. ‘Postmodem’ society could therefore be characterized as one of culturally mediated ‘;hallucinatory wish-fulfilments’, which nevertheless have real, and sometimes destructive, social effects.

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