Objecti Cation In American Culture

the modern era. His analysis of the evolution of modern day sociological and psychological concepts, and the interplay between the two types, has been of so much importance that he has been heralded as a prophet of the new cultural history (G.Gutting, 2014). One of his books, Madness and Civilization, which examines the evolution of the meaning of madness in European culture, is considered as one of the most comprehensive studies of the history of psychiatry

(G.Gutting, 2014).

Sigmund Freud, on the other hand, is most famous for his founding of psycho- analysis as a comprehensive subject and is frequently referred to as the father of the same (S.P.Thornton, 2014). His work is often perceived as one of the most controversial and polarizing

In simpler words, a dividing principle, which is usually social in origin, is used to dierentiate and thus objectify an individual or a group of individuals. Some of the examples that illustrate this type of objectication are the isolation of lepers during the middle ages, the ostracization of untouchables in pre-modern India and the medicalization, stigmatization, and normalization of sexual deviance in modern Europe (P.Rabinow, 1984). It is important to note that the indi- vidual or the group of individuals that are being objectied assume an identity that arises out of the dividing practice. This identication through the division practice is most lucid in the case of the untouchables in India, whose very name derives from the dividing practice that is used to isolate them.

The second mode of objectication is aptly termed scientic classication.

In this mode of objectication, the subject becomes an object whose characteris- tics are observed for the purpose of science. This kind of objectication happens usually when the subject is objectied for the sake of scientic study. One

The superego is the ego ideal, the part of the mind that has been shaped by exter- nal factors such as cultural values and rules which are introduced through the guiding inuence of parents (Lapsley & Stey, 2011).

The tripartite theory objecties the very idea of the mind, by taking a hith- erto abstract and subjective concept and partitioning it into objective regions which have clear roles. This objectication is clearly of the second kind, where something so subjective as the human mind, is objectied for scientic study.

The theory and techniques of psychoanalysis themselves hold a plethora of objectications. Firstly, the theory seeks to expound the plausible reasons be- hind neurotic behaviour. The very fact that some subjects are labelled neurotic shows a very clear objectication of the rst and second kinds, i.e, objectica-

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tion by a dividing principle as well as a scientic classication, which in this case happens to be neuroses (as opposed to normalcy). The dividing principle arises out of the social stigma attached to the idea of a mind that deviates from normalcy while the scientic classication is derived from the fact that the subject has a lack of mental