Always lying in wait: On the psychology of wokeness
Honestly, sometimes I can't hear the word "woke" anymore, even though I use it myself.
Excessive culture wars can be tiring.
We hear about wokeness all the time and not everyone knows what that actually means.
But often you have a rough idea about it.
By Esther Bockwyt
Excessive culture wars can be tiring.
We hear about wokeness all the time and not everyone knows what that actually means.
But often you have a rough idea about it.
By Esther Bockwyt
Before any discussion of wokeness, which, according to some of its advocates, one should no longer name as such,
It makes sense that there is something like a definition of the phenomenon.
In the Duden, which describes woke as "highly politically awake and committed against (particularly racist, sexist, social) discrimination", one can already find a reference to the potentially unhealthy from a psychological point of view:
Anyone who is excessively awake and committed will not be able to calm down. He seems to be lying in wait.
But the Duden does not allow any reference to the worldview underlying the movement:
A deeply negativistic, regressive one.
Structural, all-encompassing discrimination, not only racist, but also sexist or ableist, should shape Western societies at their core.
White, heterosexual, male "positioned" people had privileges that they did not want to admit to themselves in order to maintain the existing power relations.
The latter, according to the woke demand, must be fundamentally dissolved and reversed.
Racism against whites does not exist, but one of the most prominent anti-racism fighters, Ibram
Concrete consequences or implementations of the woke faith are already manifesting themselves in "safe spaces" for minority groups, in the cleansing of language, cultural content (books, films, street names, etc.) and in personal cancel culture . So in pronounced regulations of language, culture and interpersonal interaction, which is why I also describe wokeness as a planned economy of emotions.
The feeling falls within the profession of psychology to which I belong.
And one would think that she would actually have something to say about wokeness if it weren't for the already existing infiltration of woke academic theories into almost all courses of study. And the overshadowing mantra of diversity as an inherently unassailable value,
to which everything else, including the scientific search for truth, must be subordinated.
From a psychological perspective, several things stand out about the woke view of people and the world:
A deeply demotivating perspective on people's lives, always with a focus on an external,
external damage to the individual, who is seen as a vulnerable victim and who is always protected from unpleasant,
hurtful feelings that are understood as damaging and traumatizing must be protected. (Depressive aspect)
An increase in emotional fragility coupled with excessive narcissism,
who, circling his identity around himself, needs the enemy image of the "old white man" in the hierarchy of the supposedly privileged,
in order to justify an aggressively motivated devaluation of the other, always using a black and white template to project the bad into the foreign and into the entire Western social structure, which is perceived as inherently discriminatory and fraught with multiple problems. (narcissistic aspect)
A demotivation of people to take on responsibility as adults, a reduction in resilience and, on the part of the supposedly oppressed and disadvantaged, the implementation of a permanent feeling of helpless anger and bitter dissatisfaction,
which one in turn tries to overcome with complaints and attacks.
On the part of the supposedly privileged, projective identification with the accusations creates either unhealthy feelings of guilt and submission or, in the healthier case, defiant reactance. (Aggressive aspect)
In an attempt to regulate and control human feelings, behavioral expressions and thoughts as well as interpersonal relationships with a love of commandments and prohibitions that appear to be a planned economy, wokeness leads to a compulsive and rigid restriction of human freedom of experience. In a never-ending expansion, because perfection cannot be achieved (there are always more supposed forms of discrimination and oppression), changes are imminent for the sake of pure change.
By rejecting the tried and tested and familiar, but ultimately with the under-complex division of humanity into perpetrators and victims, it leads to division between people and, through "safe places", safe spaces, contributes to group separations. (Compulsive aspect)
With their system-subversive energy and "everything-is-relative" denial of realities that are dissonant with feeling,
Wokeness robs people of their support and security, a common,
unifying reality and therefore an essential basic human need. (histrionic aspect)
After years of excessively moralizing influence on the human superego, one thing remains clear from a psychological perspective:
Don't feel guilty, don't question your privileges.
Real empathy and willingness to help do not arise through moralizing upbringing,
They come by themselves, because they are already built into people.
Just like diversity, in the exciting phenomena of evolution.
You don't have to force it first.
You can find more from Ester Bockwyt here!
@Esther Bockwyt
03/01/24
It makes sense that there is something like a definition of the phenomenon.
In the Duden, which describes woke as "highly politically awake and committed against (particularly racist, sexist, social) discrimination", one can already find a reference to the potentially unhealthy from a psychological point of view:
Anyone who is excessively awake and committed will not be able to calm down. He seems to be lying in wait.
But the Duden does not allow any reference to the worldview underlying the movement:
A deeply negativistic, regressive one.
Structural, all-encompassing discrimination, not only racist, but also sexist or ableist, should shape Western societies at their core.
White, heterosexual, male "positioned" people had privileges that they did not want to admit to themselves in order to maintain the existing power relations.
The latter, according to the woke demand, must be fundamentally dissolved and reversed.
Racism against whites does not exist, but one of the most prominent anti-racism fighters, Ibram
Concrete consequences or implementations of the woke faith are already manifesting themselves in "safe spaces" for minority groups, in the cleansing of language, cultural content (books, films, street names, etc.) and in personal cancel culture . So in pronounced regulations of language, culture and interpersonal interaction, which is why I also describe wokeness as a planned economy of emotions.
The feeling falls within the profession of psychology to which I belong.
And one would think that she would actually have something to say about wokeness if it weren't for the already existing infiltration of woke academic theories into almost all courses of study. And the overshadowing mantra of diversity as an inherently unassailable value,
to which everything else, including the scientific search for truth, must be subordinated.
From a psychological perspective, several things stand out about the woke view of people and the world:
A deeply demotivating perspective on people's lives, always with a focus on an external,
external damage to the individual, who is seen as a vulnerable victim and who is always protected from unpleasant,
hurtful feelings that are understood as damaging and traumatizing must be protected. (Depressive aspect)
An increase in emotional fragility coupled with excessive narcissism,
who, circling his identity around himself, needs the enemy image of the "old white man" in the hierarchy of the supposedly privileged,
in order to justify an aggressively motivated devaluation of the other, always using a black and white template to project the bad into the foreign and into the entire Western social structure, which is perceived as inherently discriminatory and fraught with multiple problems. (narcissistic aspect)
A demotivation of people to take on responsibility as adults, a reduction in resilience and, on the part of the supposedly oppressed and disadvantaged, the implementation of a permanent feeling of helpless anger and bitter dissatisfaction,
which one in turn tries to overcome with complaints and attacks.
On the part of the supposedly privileged, projective identification with the accusations creates either unhealthy feelings of guilt and submission or, in the healthier case, defiant reactance. (Aggressive aspect)
In an attempt to regulate and control human feelings, behavioral expressions and thoughts as well as interpersonal relationships with a love of commandments and prohibitions that appear to be a planned economy, wokeness leads to a compulsive and rigid restriction of human freedom of experience. In a never-ending expansion, because perfection cannot be achieved (there are always more supposed forms of discrimination and oppression), changes are imminent for the sake of pure change.
By rejecting the tried and tested and familiar, but ultimately with the under-complex division of humanity into perpetrators and victims, it leads to division between people and, through "safe places", safe spaces, contributes to group separations. (Compulsive aspect)
With their system-subversive energy and "everything-is-relative" denial of realities that are dissonant with feeling,
Wokeness robs people of their support and security, a common,
unifying reality and therefore an essential basic human need. (histrionic aspect)
After years of excessively moralizing influence on the human superego, one thing remains clear from a psychological perspective:
Don't feel guilty, don't question your privileges.
Real empathy and willingness to help do not arise through moralizing upbringing,
They come by themselves, because they are already built into people.
Just like diversity, in the exciting phenomena of evolution.
You don't have to force it first.
You can find more from Ester Bockwyt here!
@Esther Bockwyt
03/01/24
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