Social economies of fear and desire : emotional regulation, emotion management, and embodied ... autonomy

All behaviours, indeed all forms of agency, are viewed as emotionally-driven. This book provides an approach to emotional experience and agency which drastically nuances the commonly held view that fear has predominantly irrational, morally, or ideologically suspect effects which thwart the exercise of autonomy. Social Economies of Fear and Desire contributes to the study of emotional life as bound to social life. It shows that emotional experience is structured by forms of felt in/capacity--emotional norms that emerge through the successes and failures of embodied beings in the exercise of autonomy, and that are acquired through emotional socialization. Economies of fear and desire are the social configurations within which particular kinds of urges to act can be placed, together with the danger and security signs that trigger their experience, the objects of fear and desire they designate, and the means in the exercise of power with which they become associated. Their study should aid in the understanding of contemporary forms of suffering and well-being Front Matter....Pages i-viii Introduction....Pages 1-12 Front Matter....Pages 13-13 Analyzing Fear and Desire....Pages 15-43 Analyzing Emotional Interaction....Pages 45-68 Analyzing Autonomous Selves....Pages 69-84 Front Matter....Pages 85-85 Analyzing Moral Danger and Self-Fear....Pages 87-110 Analyzing Social Interaction....Pages 111-140 Analyzing Emotion Management....Pages 141-160 Analyzing Emotional Campaigns....Pages 161-180 Analyzing Self-Discipline and Self-Realization....Pages 181-203 Afterword....Pages 205-211 Back Matter....Pages 213-261