420.2
Revisiting Sadomasochism in Everyday Life
Revisiting Sadomasochism in Everyday Life
Monday, 11 July 2016: 16:15
Location: Seminar 34 (Juridicum)
Oral Presentation
This paper returns to a book I wrote in 1992 entitled *Sadomasochism in Everyday Life: The Dynamics of Power and Powerlessness* and tries to update the arguments presented there so as to take into account mediating factors that can either encourage or mitigate against the dynamics discussed in the earlier volume.
In particular, the paper looks at the overlap between my arguments and that of Erich Fromm, and attempts to look at whether developments in the public sphere (especially the emergence of Donald Trump in the United States as a viable political candidate) and in the private sphere (discourse about the private sphere, and efforts to protect reproductive freedom currently being made by feminists) suggest an ongoing relevance of Frankfurt School perspectives. However, in an updated context, the paper also reflects from a social movement perspective on what might help to offset contemporary sadomasochistic dynamics -- i.e., it analyzes ‘mediating’ factors that were not given adequate attention in the book when previously published.