257:, "the real object of attack—for which Freud is only a stalking-horse—is the very idea that humans have unconscious motivation". Given a choice of surface or depth—"are we to see humans as having depth, layers of meaning which lie beneath the surface of their own understanding?"—he asks: "Or are we to take ourselves as transparent to ourselves...to ignore the complexity, depth and darkness of human life"; the postmodern bias remains towards superficiality.
22:
179:
That process of substitution was well under way by the 1990s, when notoriously "surface was depth", and in the new millennium has led to a state of what has been called hypervisibility: everything is on view. In this new era of exposure we are all submerged in what the psychoanalyst
Michael Parsons
175:
has increasingly sought to undo the depth/surface hierarchy, proposing in ironic style that superficiality is as deep as depth. The result has been the call to abandon the idea that behind appearances there is any ultimate truth to be found; and in consequence the growing postmodern replacement of
113:
might for a time affect superficiality, and play with the possibility of treating serious topics in a light-hearted fashion; but the prevailing western consensus firmly rejected elements such as everyday chatter or the changing vagaries of fashion as superficial distractions from a deeper reality.
146:
reality - Marxist, psychoanalytic, existential, and semiotic - in each of which reality is understood to be concealed behind an inauthentic surface or façade. Jameson contrast these models sharply with the lack of depth, the ahistoricity, the surface-focus and flatness of the postmodern
126:
opened the modernist era with a self-conscious praise of superficiality: "What is required is to stop courageously at the surface, the fold, the skin, to adore appearance, to believe in forms, tones, words, in the whole
Olympus of appearance! Those Greeks were superficial –
183:
If postmodernism's proponents welcomed the way a new transcendence of the surface /depth dichotomy allowed a fuller appreciation of the possibilities of the superficial - the surface consciousness of the now, as opposed to the depths of historical time - critics like
284:
Some circumstances however necessitate a shift from superficial to extensive processing. When things become serious, we must put more and deeper thought into understanding, leaving superficial judgements to cases where the stakes are low, not high.
332:
had similarly explored what was at the start of the 20th century a conventional contrast between the (historical) depth of Europe and the superficiality of
America; but towards the century's close, another European,
337:, would return to the image of America as a shallow, cultureless desert, only to praise it in postmodern terms "because you are delivered from all depths there – a brilliant, mobile, superficial neutrality".
188:
object that the end-product is a world of "laws without penalties, events without significance, a sun without shadows": of surface without depth. They see postmodern superficiality as a by-product of the
269:
and immediate judgements, and a deeper form of processing in which we seek to understand the other person more fully. In the ordinary course of life, we necessarily take others at face-value, and use
109:. For more than two millennia, there was in the Platonic wake a general valorisation of critical thought over the superficial subjectivity that refused deep analysis. The salon style of the
241:
approach is that we pay attention to the obvious, to the utmost surface. We don't delve into a region which we don't know anything about, into the so-called 'unconscious
171:
world-view, insisting instead that sense manifestations had their own reality which necessarily impacted upon the purely verbal order of intelligibility. Similarly,
101:
sought to convince his debaters to turn from the superficiality of a worldview based on the acceptance of convention to the examined life of philosophy, founded (as
32:
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phase as an effort to preserve superficiality, but would later optimally see the client moving from the surface to deeper emotion and creativity.
43:
82:
refers to a lack of depth in relationships, conversation and analysis. The principle of "superficiality versus depth" is said to have pervaded
312:
in particular is often seen as specifically fostering superficiality, replacing deep, measured analysis by noisy but unfiltered observation.
90:. Social psychology considers that in everyday life, social processing veers between superficiality and a deeper form of processing.
958:
349:'s initially favourable appraisal of Whickham – her first impressions – to her deeper realisation of the value of Mr Darcy.
221:
analysis at the surface or by way of deep interpretations, but this is essentially a question of timing. Thus for example
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Social psychology considers that in everyday life social processing veers between superficiality, where we rely on
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306:, describing them as oppressive tools of the ruling class, meant to "keep people stupid and apathetic."
138:'s full subscription to the depth/surface model, and to the privileging of the former over the latter.
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has called "the totalist world where there is a horror of inwardness; everything must be revealed".
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His (still) preference for superficiality was however over-shadowed for most of the 20th century by
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that states a
Knowledge editor's personal feelings or presents an original argument about a topic.
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to guide our daily activities; while institutions too can rely on the superficial consensus of
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mind in such a way as to foreclose the possibility of envisioning any critical alternative.
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of global capitalism, where surface distractions, news, and entertainment supersaturate the
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began challenging the
Platonic view of a true meaning hidden behind surface as a
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is his examination of
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has been analysed in terms of the movement from the superficiality of
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Sense & Semblance: An
Anatomy of Superficiality in Modern Society
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213:'s words, for "change from the depths of oneself upwards into the
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has highlighted four main modernist versions of the belief in a
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245:". A similar focus on the superficial has fuelled much of the
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of one's social appearance". Debates may rage over whether to
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would highlight at the start of therapy what they call the
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209:
defy the postmodern to value depth over surface—to aim, in
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33:
personal reflection, personal essay, or argumentative essay
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Myth and
Philosophy from the pre-Socratics to Plato
237:by contrast maintained that "the simplicity of the
981:
474:The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-Analysis
678:The Dove that Returns, the Dove that Vanishes
328:, superficiality, and obsession with youth.
176:depth by surface, or by multiple surfaces.
117:
903:Tony Tanner, 'Introduction', Jane Austen,
105:at least considered) upon the underlying
62:Learn how and when to remove this message
892:The Routledge Companion to Postmodernism
855:, October 24, 1993, via Vide.Google.com
163:In the last third of the 20th century,
982:
769:Introduction to Jungian Psychotherapy
853:"Bill Hicks on Austin Public Access"
639:The Nineties: when surface was depth
500:Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand
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93:
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929:, "On Depth and Superficiality" in
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931:Selected Essays of William Hazlitt
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281:to preclude deeper investigation.
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756:Further Learning from the Patient
498:M. R. Gladstein/C. M. Sicabarra,
793:Jonathan Lear, in Parsons, p. 24
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628:(London 1991) p. 2 and p. 12
591:The Lyotard Reader and Guide
147:consciousness, with its new
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969:Superficiality in education
613:Postmodernism for Beginners
611:R. Appignanesi/C. Garratt,
589:K. Chrome/J. Williams ed.,
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86:since at least the time of
10:
1041:
890:Quoted in Stuart Sim ed.,
550:Quoted in Gregory Castle,
456:E. R. Smith/D. M. Mackie,
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822:Sociology as a Skin Trade
802:Lear, in Parsons, p. 24-5
253:, in which, according to
965:Richard Winn Livingstone
782:Gestalt Therapy Verbatim
576:M. Hardt/K. Weeks eds.,
513:Sex and Power in History
118:Modernist cross-currents
907:(Penguin 1972) p. 11-24
868:(2008) p. 16 and p. 213
866:The Cult of the Amateur
743:The Death of the Family
706:(Princeton 1992) p. 188
990:Concepts in aesthetics
580:(2000) p. 17 and p 193
386:Emotional intelligence
42:by rewriting it in an
730:Burning All Illusions
663:L. Magid/A. Collier,
563:A. Bennett/N. Royle,
151:of the image and the
921:Subject to Ourselves
894:(London 2001) p. 194
881:(London 1994) p. xxi
842:Smith/Mackie, p. 554
833:Smith/Mackie, p. 325
824:(London 1972) p. 173
758:(London 1997) p. 169
745:(Penguin 1974) p. 13
719:(London 2003) p. 294
689:Russell De Manning,
652:Baudrillard Reframed
438:Superficial sympathy
953:(2007). Founthill.
941:One-Dimensional Man
905:Pride and Prejudice
680:(London 2000) p. 85
654:(London 2011) p. 32
637:Michael Bracewell,
485:Kathryn A. Morgan,
407:One-Dimensional Man
342:Pride and Prejudice
321:After Many a Summer
191:false consciousness
754:Patrick Casement,
578:The Jameson Reader
524:Catherine Cusset,
207:depth psychologies
44:encyclopedic style
31:is written like a
1000:Mass media issues
959:978-0-9555176-0-0
919:Anthony Elliott,
780:Frederick Perls,
717:Millennium People
704:Sequel to History
676:Michael Parsons,
624:Fredric Jameson,
537:G. D. McCracken,
458:Social Psychology
433:Superficial charm
371:Celebrity culture
298:often criticized
267:first impressions
261:Social processing
228:persona-restoring
129:out of profundity
94:Historical sketch
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526:No Tomorrow
428:Superficial
335:Baudrillard
300:consumerism
275:stereotypes
271:ideal types
235:Fritz Perls
215:superficies
205:Almost all
1020:Aesthetics
984:Categories
445:References
326:narcissism
296:Bill Hicks
279:groupthink
247:Freud Wars
169:theatrical
153:simulacrum
111:Précieuses
1025:Celebrity
470:Lacan, J.
423:Silliness
413:Platitude
136:modernism
124:Nietzsche
354:See also
223:Jungians
99:Socrates
1015:Culture
665:Myspace
418:Sheeple
310:Web 2.0
239:Gestalt
201:Therapy
195:zapping
165:Lyotard
38:Please
971:(1957)
957:
943:(1964)
933:(2004)
923:(1996)
391:Ersatz
361:Acedia
318:novel
144:deeper
330:Freud
219:begin
107:Ideas
103:Plato
88:Plato
963:Sir
955:ISBN
851:See
376:Chic
149:cult
131:!".
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