Test Yourself: Are You Part of the Precariat?

Do you have an unstable income, frequent changes of residence, or a changing relationship? Is your future full of question marks? If so, you may be part of the fragile state class, also known as the precariat.

The precariat is a growing class of workers who experience insecurity, unpredictability, and a lack of social protections. Freelancers, part-time workers, independent contractors, and anyone who juggles multiple jobs to make ends meet belong to this new class. But how do you know if you're part of the precariat?

Question 1: Is Your Income Inconsistent?

A clear sign of being part of the fragile class is inconsistent income. Are your monthly earnings unpredictable, with some months being better than others? Do you find it difficult to predict your future earnings due to irregular job opportunities? If so, you may be walking the fragile path of life.

Question 2: Do You Lack Job Benefits?

Traditional employment often comes with benefits such as health insurance, retirement plans, and paid vacation. If you find yourself without these safety nets, you may be part of the precariat. The lack of benefits leaves employees exposed to unexpected expenses and an uncertain future.

Question 3: Is Job Security an Illusion?

Stability in the workplace is a rare thing for the fragile class, whether by choice or by compulsion. Constantly bouncing between contracts or short-term gigs can leave you unsure about your professional future, even if things are going great and you're making good money. If job security feels more like an elusive dream than reality, you're likely experiencing the fractures in the modern work landscape.

Question 4: When Was the Last Time You Saw the Horizon?

Planning for the future becomes a challenge when work is not secure. The lack of stable employment can hinder your ability to plan ahead with confidence. If you have no way to even begin to think about where you will be in a few years, you are in the fragile realm.

Question 5: Do You Lack a Social Safety Net?

Without the support of traditional employment benefits, members of the fragile class often find themselves without a reliable social safety net. In times of illness, emergencies, or unexpected events, the lack of safety nets can exacerbate the challenges of an already unstable work situation. In addition, hard working hours and frequent changes of environment leave many young people cut off from social circles that can provide support and a sense of worth.

Question 6: Does Instability and Uncertainty Disrupt Your Personal Life?

Instability and uncertainty take a psychological toll on us. The difficulty of looking and planning ahead and the dependence on changing working conditions burden our ability to experience well-being and a sense of security. Social isolation and a sense of social competitiveness exacerbate the difficult challenge of the fragile class, and something in it is really starting to crack.

If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, you may be part of the precariat. Don't be ashamed - it's not your fault. It's just the social, economic, and occupational structure of today. Until it changes, many like you will continue to be fragile.

Freud's famous patients: best known case studies

Sigmund Freud is best known for his theoretical work on the human mind and for his development of theories about the unconscious mind and its influence on behavior. But Freud's theory did not come from nowhere but directly from his clinical practice. Freud's writings are therefore full of case studies explaining his way of reaching his conclusions. Some of these case studies are now Freud's most famous patients.

The case of Anna O.

One of the most famous case studies conducted by Freud was that of Anna O., also known as Bertha Pappenheim. Anna was a young woman who was suffering from symptoms including hallucinations, paralysis, and loss of speech. She was treated by Josef Breuer, a colleague of Freud's, who used a technique known as the "talking cure" to help her understand and express her thoughts and emotions. One interesting thing is Anna's sudden unexplained hydrophobia, which was revealed to be caused by her seeing her roommate's dog drinking out of her cup. This treatment proved to be effective and Anna eventually made a full recovery.

Little Hans

Another famous case study conducted by Freud was that of "Little Hans," a five-year-old boy who developed a phobia of horses. Through his analysis of the boy's behavior and dreams, Freud concluded that the phobia was caused by unconscious sexual desires. This case study helped to support Freud's theory of the Oedipus complex, which suggests that young children have sexual desires towards their opposite-sex parent. Little Hans' fear of his father was replaced by fear of horses, and once this was acknowledged the symptoms went away.

Dora

Another one of Freud's famous patients is a woman known as "Dora" who was suffering from hysteria. Through his analysis of Dora's symptoms and behavior, Freud concluded that her condition was caused by repressed desires and conflicts related to her sexuality. This case study helped to support Freud's theory of repression, which suggests that individuals may unconsciously repress unpleasant thoughts and feelings.

The Wolfman

Another famous case study conducted by Freud was that of the "Wolfman," a Russian man named Sergei Pankejeff who was suffering from anxiety and phobias. Through his analysis of the man's dreams and childhood experiences, Freud concluded that the root of his psychological problems was a repressed memory of a traumatic experience involving his parents. This case study helped to support Freud's theories of repression and the Oedipus complex, and provided further evidence for his belief in the role of the unconscious mind in shaping behavior. The Wolfman case remains one of the most well-known and controversial case studies in the history of psychology.

These case studies and the theories developed by Freud had a major influence on the field of psychology and continue to be studied and discussed by psychologists today. His work on the unconscious mind and its influence on behavior helped to pave the way for many of the treatment methods used in modern psychology, such as psychotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy.

To dive deeper, see Best books to start reading Freud

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*This text was created with the aid of OpenAI’s GPT-3 model and modified by the author.

What does Deconstruction have to do with Quantom Physics?

It is always a curious thing how physical theories about existence correlate with contemporary philosophical notions of it. One such example is the relation between Jacques Derrida's theory of Deconstruction and what is known as Quantum Mechanics or Quantum physics. While these two fields may seem unrelated at first glance, they actually have many common features and ideas that make them relevant to each other.

Quantum and deconstructive uncertainty

One of the key ideas that connects deconstruction and quantum mechanics is the concept of uncertainty and indeterminacy. Deconstruction, as a method of critical analysis, is concerned with exposing the underlying assumptions and biases that are inherent in texts and other forms of communication. This approach challenges the idea that language and other forms of communication can provide a complete and accurate representation of reality, and instead highlights the inherent uncertainty and indeterminacy that is always present in our attempts to understand and communicate about the world.

Similarly, quantum mechanics is based on the idea that there are fundamental limits to our ability to predict and control the behavior of subatomic particles, and that there is always a certain level of uncertainty and indeterminacy at the quantum level. This uncertainty is inherent in the behavior of subatomic particles, which can exhibit both wave-like and particle-like properties depending on how they are measured or observed.

Rethinking reality

Another way that deconstruction and quantum mechanics intersect is in their approach to understanding the fundamental nature of reality. Deconstruction challenges traditional ways of thinking and encourages us to question the assumptions and biases that shape our understanding of the world. This approach is similar to the way that quantum mechanics forces us to re-examine our assumptions about the nature of reality at the most fundamental level.

In conclusion, while deconstruction and quantum mechanics deal with very different fields, there are also many commonalities and points of overlap between them. By exploring these connections and similarities, we can gain a deeper understanding of both deconstruction and quantum mechanics, and their relevance to our broader understanding of the world.

*This text was created with the aid of OpenAI’s GPT-3 model and modified by the author.

Levinas, the Self and Altruism

For hundreds of years, at leas since Descartes' "cogito", philosophy has been preoccupied with the question of the "I", its essence, its place in the world and its relationship with reality. According to Emmanuel Levinas, all the ways in which Western philosophy formulated these questions, from Plato and Aristotle to Spinoza, Kierkegaard and Heidegger, always returned in the end to the self, what he called "egoism".

Levinas himself was looking for a way to understand who the self is that would not cut him off from the world but depend on his relationship with it, an altruistic way. Levinas, like many philosophers before him, searched for the one thing that makes us unique, makes us disposable and irreplaceable. What he found is not an existential "authenticity" of an "I" that stands on its own, but a "responsibility" and altruism that define the "I" as a relation to those other than it.

There is no me without a you

For Levinas, the "I" does not exist first and only then meets someone who is different from him, exists first of all "within himself" before he goes out into the world. In fact, it is the encounter with the other that makes us aware of ourselves, and this is because the other demands from us to be responsible towards him. This responsibility, the altruism, gives meaning to who we are in the world.

Love is something that makes us special and unique. It is true that every day people all over the world fall in love, but when it happens to us we feel that it is the most special thing that can be. Loving someone else means that we can no longer stay "within ourselves" and we have to understand ourselves from the relationship with the beloved. Love does not last long without commitment and responsibility and therefore to choose it is to choose who "I am".

Levinas' Difficult Altruism

In Levinas, the concept of altruism is linked to the concept of freedom. To be who we are we must be free, however freedom is not being "free as the spirit" but the ability to take meaningful actions in the world. In order for actions to have meaning for us, we must bear responsibility for them, say that these are "our" actions. That's why freedom "involves a responsibility that may surprise" (Totality and Infinity, p. 226), what Levinas calls "difficult freedom". It is the responsibility to others, and not the thought of ourselves, that makes us who we are.

See our introduction to Levinas

Article Summaries in Political Science

Here you can find a list of links to summaries of articles in political science:

International Institutions: Two Approaches / Robert Keohane
The Demand for International Regimes / Robert Keohane
Can we think systematically about ethics and statecraft / Welch
The origins of war in Neorealist theory / Kenneth Waltz 
Hegemony, Gramsci and International relations / RW Cox
Anarchy is what states make of it / Alexander Wendt


Back to article summaries in political science 

Summaries in communication studies

Here you'll find a list of links to summaries of important article in communication studies:

Mass Communication, Popular Taste and Organized Social Action / Lazarsfeld and Merton 
Living with Television: The Violence Profile / Gerbner and Gross
Prime Time Ideology / Gitlin
Introduction: Identity in the Age of the Internet / Turkle