Byung-Chul Han

Our competitive, service-oriented societies are taking a toll on the late-modern individual. Rather than improving life, multitasking, "user-friendly" technology, and the culture of convenience are producing disorders that range from depression to attention deficit disorder to borderline personality disorder. Byung-Chul Han interprets the spreading malaise as an inability to manage negative experiences in an age characterized by excessive positivity and the universal availability of people and goods. Stress and exhaustion are not just personal experiences, but social and historical phenomena as well. Denouncing a world in which every against-the-grain response can lead to further disempowerment, he draws on literature, philosophy, and the social and natural sciences to explore the stakes of sacrificing intermittent intellectual reflection for constant neural connection.

The Burnout Society

Alain Badiou

An argument that love requires the courage to accept self-negation for the sake of discovering the Other.

The Agony of Eros

"The translation of this work was supported by a grant from the Goethe-Institut which is funded by the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs."--Title page verso.

Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power

Psychopolitics

Untrammelled neoliberalism and the inexorable force of production have produced a 21st century crisis of community: a narcissistic cult of authenticity and mass turning-inward are among the pathologies engendered by it. We are individuals afloat in an atomised society, where the loss of the symbolic structures inherent in ritual behaviour has led to overdependence on the contingent to steer identity. Avoiding saccharine nostalgia for the rituals of the past, Han provides a genealogy of their disappearance as a means of diagnosing the pathologies of the present. He juxtaposes a community without communication – where the intensity of togetherness in silent recognition provides structure and meaning – to today’s communication without community, which does away with collective feelings and leaves individuals exposed to exploitation and manipulation by neoliberal psycho-politics. The community that is invoked everywhere today is an atrophied and commoditized community that lacks the symbolic power to bind people together. For Han, it is only the mutual praxis of recognition borne by the ritualistic sharing of the symbolic between members of a community which creates the footholds of objectivity allowing us to make sense of time. This new book by one of the most creative cultural theorists writing today will be of interest to a wide readership.

A Topology of the Present

The Disappearance of Rituals

Byung-Chul Han, a star of German philosophy, continues his passionate critique of neoliberalism, trenchantly describing a regime of technological domination that, in contrast to Foucault's biopower, has discovered the productive force of the psyche. In the course of discussing all the facets of neoliberal psychopolitics fueling our contemporary crisis of freedom, Han elaborates an analytical framework that provides an original theory of Big Data and a lucid phenomenology of emotion. But this provocative essay proposes counter models too, presenting a wealth of ideas and surprising alternatives at every turn.

Transparency is the order of the day. It is a term, a slogan, that dominates public discourse about corruption and freedom of information. Considered crucial to democracy, it touches our political and economic lives as well as our private lives. Anyone can obtain information about anything. Everything—and everyone—has become transparent: unveiled or exposed by the apparatuses that exert a kind of collective control over the post-capitalist world. Yet, transparency has a dark side that, ironically, has everything to do with a lack of mystery, shadow, and nuance. Behind the apparent accessibility of knowledge lies the disappearance of privacy, homogenization, and the collapse of trust. The anxiety to accumulate ever more information does not necessarily produce more knowledge or faith. Technology creates the illusion of total containment and the constant monitoring of information, but what we lack is adequate interpretation of the information. In this manifesto, Byung-Chul Han denounces transparency as a false ideal, the strongest and most pernicious of our contemporary mythologies.

The Transparency Society

Tracing the thread of “decreation” in Chinese thought, from constantly changing classical masterpieces to fake cell phones that are better than the original. Shanzhai is a Chinese neologism that means “fake,” originally coined to describe knock-off cell phones marketed under such names as Nokir and Samsing. These cell phones were not crude forgeries but multifunctional, stylish, and as good as or better than the originals. Shanzhai has since spread into other parts of Chinese life, with shanzhai books, shanzhai politicians, shanzhai stars. There is a shanzhai Harry Potter: Harry Potter and the Porcelain Doll, in which Harry takes on his nemesis Yandomort. In the West, this would be seen as piracy, or even desecration, but in Chinese culture, originals are continually transformed—deconstructed. In this volume in the Untimely Meditations series, Byung-Chul Han traces the thread of deconstruction, or “decreation,” in Chinese thought, from ancient masterpieces that invite inscription and transcription to Maoism—“a kind a shanzhai Marxism,” Han writes. Han discusses the Chinese concepts of quan, or law, which literally means the weight that slides back and forth on a scale, radically different from Western notions of absoluteness; zhen ji, or original, determined not by an act of creation but by unending process; xian zhan, or seals of leisure, affixed by collectors and part of the picture's composition; fuzhi, or copy, a replica of equal value to the original; and shanzhai. The Far East, Han writes, is not familiar with such “pre-deconstructive” factors as original or identity. Far Eastern thought begins with deconstruction.

Deconstruction in Chinese

Shanzhai

Beauty today is a paradox. The cult of beauty is ubiquitous but it has lost its transcendence and become little more than an aspect of consumerism, the aesthetic dimension of capitalism. The sublime and unsettling aspects of beauty have given way to corporeal pleasures and 'likes', resulting in a kind of 'pornography' of beauty. In this book, cultural theorist Byung-Chul Han reinvigorates aesthetic theory for our digital age. He interrogates our preoccupation with all things slick and smooth, from Jeff Koon's sculptures and the iPhone to Brazilian waxing. Reaching far deeper than our superficial reactions to viral videos and memes, Han reclaims beauty, showing how it manifests itself as truth, temptation and even disaster. This wide-ranging and profound exploration of beauty, encompassing ethical and political considerations as well as aesthetic, will appeal to all those interested in cultural and aesthetic theory, philosophy and digital media.

Saving Beauty

What we call growth today is in fact a tumorous growth, a cancerous proliferation which is disrupting the social organism. These tumours endlessly metastasize and grow with an inexplicable, deadly vitality. At a certain point this growth is no longer productive, but rather destructive. Capitalism passed this point long ago. Its destructive forces cause not only ecological and social catastrophes but also mental collapse. The destructive compulsion to perform combines self-affirmation and self-destruction in one. We optimize ourselves to death. Brutal competition ends in destruction. It produces an emotional coldness and indifference towards others as well as towards one’s own self. The devastating consequences of capitalism suggest that a death drive is at work. Freud initially introduced the death drive hesitantly, but later admitted that he ‘couldn’t think beyond it’ as the idea of the death drive became increasingly central to his thought. Today, it is impossible to think about capitalism without considering the death drive.

Capitalism and the Death Drive

معاناة إيروس

Os efeitos colaterais do discurso motivacional. O mercado de palestras e livros motivacionais está crescendo desde o início do século XXI e não mostra sinais de desaquecimento. Religiões tradicionais estão perdendo adeptos para novas igrejas que trocam o discurso do pecado pelo encorajamento e autoajuda. As instituições políticas e empresariais mudaram o sistema de punição, hierarquia e combate ao concorrente pelas positividades do estímulo, eficiência e reconhecimento social pela superação das próprias limitações. Byung-Chul Han mostra que a sociedade disciplinar e repressora do século XX descrita por Michel Foucault perde espaço para uma nova forma de organização coercitiva: a violência neuronal. As pessoas se cobram cada vez mais para apresentar resultados - tornando elas mesmas vigilantes e carrascas de suas ações. Em uma época onde poderíamos trabalhar menos e ganhar mais, a ideologia da positividade opera uma inversão perversa: nos submetemos a trabalhar mais e a receber menos. Essa onda do "eu consigo" e do "yes, we can" tem gerado um aumento significativo de doenças como depressão, transtornos de personalidade, síndromes como hiperatividade e burnout. Este livro transcende o campo filosófico e pode ajudar educadores, psicólogos e gestores a entender os novos problemas do século XXI.

Sociedade do cansaço

Kendini seyrettiği gölün başından ayrılamayan Narcissus bugün her yerde ; sokakta, otobüste veya dağ başında, kendini cep telefonu ekranından seyrediyor. İlla seyretmesine de gerek yok. Baktığı her şey, alışveriş merkezindeki her ürün, dinlediği her şarkı, okuduğu her tweet hatta bir başkasının yüzü bile ona kendi muhteşemliğini, eşsizliğini, biricikliğini yansıtıyor bugün. Fakat bu olumlamanın zehirli bir tarafı da var : gizlenmiş bir iktidar mantığı, zorun sapkın bir içselleşmesi. Aynının sonsuz yeniden üretiminde kişi, kendisine biçim verecek soruyu kaybetmiş durumda, ötekini. Ötekinin, başkanın, olumsuzun uzaklara sürüldüğü yerde, sınırın çekilebileceği nirengi noktası bulunamıyor. Geç-modernitenin performans öznesi için her yerden üzerine çullanan ve köpürdükçe köpüren bu mutlak aynılığın tek bir neticesi var: kendini tüketmek. Bu sefer yıkım dışarıdan değil içeriden, ani bir çöküş, depresyon veya burn-out biçiminde geliyor.
Kaybolan olumsuzun düşünürü, Byung Chul-Han, acının, mahremiyetin, mesafenin kaybını bu sefer de ötekinin kaybı üzerinden düşünüyor. Pek çok düşünür arasında aydınlatıcı ve beklenmedik bağlantılar kurmakta mahir düşünme pratiği, bize bir yandan içinde yaşadığımız “aynının cehennemini” gösteriyor, öte yandan da şaşırtıcı bir felsefe tarihi gezintisi vaat ediyor:
“Ötekinin varolduğu zamanlar sona erdi. Gizem olarak öteki, baştan çıkarma olarak öteki, Eros, arzu, cehennem ve acı olarak öteki ortadan kayboluyor. Bugün, ötekinin negatifliği, yerini aynının pozitifliğine bırakıyor. Aynının aşırı çoğalması, toplumsal gövdeyi etkileyen patolojik değişikliklere sebep oluyor. Bünyeyi hasta eden şey, mahrumiyet ve yasaklama değil, aşırı iletişim ve aşırı tüketim; bastırma ve olumsuzlama değil, her şeye izin verme ve her şeyi olumlamadır. Zamanımızın patolojik alameti bastırma değil, depresyondur. Yıkıcı baskı ötekiden değil, içten gelir.”

Ötekini Kovmak: Günümüzde Toplum, Algı ve İletişim

Pyŏng-ch'ŏl Han

Derzeit vollzieht sich unbemerkt ein Paradigmenwechsel. Die Gesellschaft der Negativität weicht einer Gesellschaft, die von einem Übermaß an Positivität beherrscht ist. Ausgehend von diesem Paradigmenwechsel zeichnet Han die pathologische Landschaft der heutigen Gesellschaft, zu der neuronale Erkrankungen wie Depression, Aufmerksamkeitsdefizitsyndrom, Borderline oder Burnout gehören. Sie sind keine Infektionen, sondern Infarkte, die nicht durch die Negativität des immunologisch Anderen, sondern durch ein Übermaß an Positivität bedingt sind. So entziehen sie sich jeder immunologischen Technik der Prophylaxe und Abwehr. Hans Analyse mündet am Ende in die Vision einer Gesellschaft, die er in beabsichtigter Ambivalenz 'Müdigkeitsgesellschaft' nennt.

Müdigkeitsgesellschaft

We no longer inhabit earth and dwell under the sky: these are being replaced by Google Earth and the Cloud. The terrestrial order is giving way to a digital order, the world of things is being replaced by a world of non-things – a constantly expanding ‘infosphere’ of information and communication which displaces objects and obliterates any stillness and calmness in our lives. Byung-Chul Han’s critique of the infosphere highlights the price we are paying for our growing preoccupation with information and communication. Today we search for more information without gaining any real knowledge. We communicate constantly without participating in a community. We save masses of data without keeping track of our memories. We accumulate friends and followers without encountering other people. This is how information develops a form of life that has no stability or duration. And as we become increasingly absorbed in the infosphere, we lose touch with the magic of things which provide a stable environment for dwelling and give continuity to human life. The infosphere may seem to grant us new freedoms but it creates new forms of control too, and it cuts us off from the kind of freedom that is tied to acting in the world. This new book by one of the most creative cultural theorists writing today will be of interest to a wide readership.

Upheaval in the Lifeworld

Non-things

Society, Perception and Communication Today

The Expulsion of the Other

One of today's most widely read philosophers considers the shift in violence from visible to invisible, from negativity to excess of positivity. Some things never disappear—violence, for example. Violence is ubiquitous and incessant but protean, varying its outward form according to the social constellation at hand. In Topology of Violence, the philosopher Byung-Chul Han considers the shift in violence from the visible to the invisible, from the frontal to the viral to the self-inflicted, from brute force to mediated force, from the real to the virtual. Violence, Han tells us, has gone from the negative—explosive, massive, and martial—to the positive, wielded without enmity or domination. This, he says, creates the false impression that violence has disappeared. Anonymized, desubjectified, systemic, violence conceals itself because it has become one with society. Han first investigates the macro-physical manifestations of violence, which take the form of negativity—developing from the tension between self and other, interior and exterior, friend and enemy. These manifestations include the archaic violence of sacrifice and blood, the mythical violence of jealous and vengeful gods, the deadly violence of the sovereign, the merciless violence of torture, the bloodless violence of the gas chamber, the viral violence of terrorism, and the verbal violence of hurtful language. He then examines the violence of positivity—the expression of an excess of positivity—which manifests itself as over-achievement, over-production, over-communication, hyper-attention, and hyperactivity. The violence of positivity, Han warns, could be even more disastrous than that of negativity. Infection, invasion, and infiltration have given way to infarction.

Topology of Violence

A prominent German thinker argues that—contrary to “Twitter Revolution” cheerleading—digital communication is destroying political discourse and political action. The shitstorm represents an authentic phenomenon of digital communication. —from In the Swarm Digital communication and social media have taken over our lives. In this contrarian reflection on digitized life, Byung-Chul Han counters the cheerleaders for Twitter revolutions and Facebook activism by arguing that digital communication is in fact responsible for the disintegration of community and public space and is slowly eroding any possibility for real political action and meaningful political discourse. In the predigital, analog era, by the time an angry letter to the editor had been composed, mailed, and received, the immediate agitation had passed. Today, digital communication enables instantaneous, impulsive reaction, meant to express and stir up outrage on the spot. “The shitstorm,” writes Han, ”represents an authentic phenomenon of digital communication.” Meanwhile, the public, the senders and receivers of these communications have become a digital swarm—not a mass, or a crowd, or Negri and Hardt's antiquated notion of a “multitude,” but a set of isolated individuals incapable of forming a “we,” incapable of calling dominant power relations into question, incapable of formulating a future because of an obsession with the present. The digital swarm is a fragmented entity that can focus on individual persons only in order to make them an object of scandal. Han, one of the most widely read philosophers in Europe today, describes a society in which information has overrun thought, in which the same algorithms are employed by Facebook, the stock market, and the intelligence services. Democracy is under threat because digital communication has made freedom and control indistinguishable. Big Brother has been succeeded by Big Data.

Digital Prospects

In the Swarm

Narratives produce the ties that bind us. They create community, eliminate contingency and anchor us in being. And yet in our contemporary information society, where everything has become arbitrary and random, storytelling shouts out loudly but narratives no longer have their binding force. Whereas narratives create community, storytelling brings forth only a fleeting community – the community of consumers. No amount of storytelling could recreate the fire around which humans gather to tell each other stories. That fire has long since burnt out. It has been replaced by the digital screen, which separates people as individual consumers. Through storytelling, capitalism appropriates narrative: stories sell. Storytelling is storyselling. The inflation of storytelling betrays a need to cope with contingency, but storytelling is unable to transform the information society back into a stable narrative community. Rather, storytelling is a pathological phenomenon of our age. Byung-Chul Han, one of the most perceptive cultural theorists of the information society, dissects this crisis with exceptional insight and flair.

The Crisis of Narration

مجتمع الاحتراق النفسي

El nuevo libro del filósofo vivo más leído del mundo. «Hoy estamos en la transición de la era de las cosas a la era de las no-cosas. No son las cosas, sino la información, lo que determina el mundo en que vivimos.» Hoy en día, el mundo se vacía de cosas y se llena de información inquietante como voces sin cuerpo. La digitalización desmaterializa y descorporeíza el mundo. En lugar de guardar recuerdos, almacenamos inmensas cantidades de datos. Los medios digitales sustituyen así a la memoria, cuyo trabajo hacen sin violencia ni demasiado esfuerzo. La información falsea los acontecimientos. Se nutre del estímulo de la sorpresa. Pero este no dura mucho. Rápidamente sentimos la necesidad de nuevos estímulos, y nos acostumbramos a percibir la realidad como una fuente inagotable de estos. Como cazadores de información, nos volvemos ciegos ante las cosas silenciosas y discretas, incluso las habituales, las menudas y las comunes, que no nos estimulan, pero nos anclan en el ser. El nuevo ensayo de Byung-Chul Han gira en torno a las cosas y las no-cosas. Desarrolla tanto una filosofía del smartphone como una crítica a la inteligencia artificial desde una nueva perspectiva. Al mismo tiempo, recupera la magia de lo sólido y lo tangible y reflexiona sobre el silencio que se pierde en el ruido de la información. «Byung Chul-Han es un filósofo necesario para conocer lo que las redes y el ciberespacio hacen con cada uno de nosotros». La Razón «Byung-Chul Han el pensador de referencia del nuevo milenio y el que con mayor contundencia critica los vicios de la sociedad conectada: de la dependencia de las redes sociales al atracón de series. Su última llamada de atención es No Cosas». El Mundo

Byung-Chul Han

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