Psychopolitics - Byung Chul Han

Come join Triangle Common Good in reading Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power from Byung-Chul Han. This is a short work of 80 pages.

Byung-Chul Han is a South Korean born philosopher whose short, punchy books focus on exploring how the era of big data and smart technology has resulted in a loss of space for narratives, rituals, and contemplation and boredom. In particular, his work Burnout Society would garner him more public attention in recent years.

In Psychopolitics, he argues that self-optimization and a regime of "positivity" are leading to a mental collapse that can be tied to the ways in which data encourages existence in flow states. We will consider this in line with our discussion of postmodernism as encouraging the experience of "kaleidoscopic flows" that don't provide space to stop and contemplate the flow of feelings or imagery.

"It is impossible to subordinate human personhood to the dictates of positivity entirely. Without negativity, life degrades into 'something dead'. Indeed, negativity is what keeps life alive. Pain is constitutive for experience. Life that consists wholly of positive emotions and the sensation of 'flow' is not human at all. The human soul owes its defining tautness and depth precisely to negativity...Now the only pain that is tolerated is pain that can be exploited for the purposes optimization. But the violence of positivity is just as destructive as the violence of negativity. Neoliberal psychopolitics, which the consciousness industry it promotes, is destroying the human soul, which is anything but a machine of positivity...Healing, it turns out, means killing"

You will find below a link to a copy of an approachable reader on his works if you want to explore more or need help understanding his ideas.

Video Essay on Psychopolitics and Byung-Chul Han
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX-FK_Rmzjc&list=PLMhB56cXTlLK1XPigOkK3lWgFWkVFj0PN&index=3

Interview with Byung-Chul Han
https://www.noemamag.com/all-that-is-solid-melts-into-information/

Copy of Byung-Chul Han: A Critical Introduction:
This is an introductory book meant for a general audience gives an approachable overview of Byung Chul Han's ideas for those that wish to dig more: Link.