On EVA Illouz's Theory Of Emotional Capitalism

Eva Illouz is the successor of the Frankfurt School's critical theory of society,her book——Cold Intimacies: The Making of Emotional Capitalism,focuses on the capitalist culture that has fostered a strong emotional culture in the workplace,in the family,and in our relationship with ourselves.She believes that economic relations have become deeply emotional,and intimacy is increasingly restricted by economic and political models involving negotiations,exchanges,and fairness.Illouz calls this dual process of defining and shaping each other's emotional and economic relationships "emotional capitalism." In order to present Eva Illouz 's "emotional capitalism" theory as clearly and completely as possible,the writing of this article will be completed in four parts:The first part mainly sorts out the background of the theory of "emotional capitalism".The emergence of the theory of "emotional capitalism" has its specific historical reasons.First of all,it traces the discovery and application of psychology to emotional dimension from a theoretical perspective,Freud's psychoanalytic approach has brought emotions to an unprecedented level of attention,The interaction between psychology and feminism makes the expression of emotion—Intimacies--show obvious rationality,and the grasp and application of emotions by narrative therapy has enabled Eva Illouz to deepen her understanding of emotions in the real world.Secondly,Marx's theory of alienation contains the dimension of emotion,including the aesthetic dimension of human beings in the objectification activities and the intimate dimension revealed by the relationship between people,Marx's theory of alienation provides the theoretical support of Marxism for Illouz 's theory of "emotional capitalism".Finally,from a realistic perspective,the development of modern capitalism raises the realistic demand of emotional power,and the emotions in the private sector appear to be rationalized.The factory's consideration of production efficiency also begins to pay attention to the emotional needs of workers,the factory also began to pay attention to the emotional needs of workers based on the consideration of production efficiency,and the company also included the emotion as a management tool.The second part is devoted to presenting the basic concepts of "emotional capitalism" theory and its problem consciousness.First of all,when discussing the basic concept of the theory of "emotional capitalism",it is pointed out that the category of"emotion" is not only a psychological entity but also a cultural and social entity in Illouz.This is the basic position of Illouz,in this position,in the question of how to shape the cultural framework of the majority of the middle-class men and women in the contemporary world,Illouz started with the cultural landscape of the United States in the twentieth century.Focusing Freudian psychoanalysis,popular psychology,and Daniel Gorman's concept of "emotional intelligence as the focus of analysis.Secondly,it discusses the problem consciousness of Illouz 's "emotional capitalism" theory,starting from the three aspects of how emotions change individual life experience,reform social management forms and promote the integration of public and private fields,the specific expression of Illouz's "emotional capitalism" theory is discussed in detail.The third part mainly analyzes and displays the basic ideological content of Illouz's "emotional capitalism" theory,which is to analyze the "emotional capitalism" theory of Illouz from the perspective of capitalist society.First of all,whether it is from the beginning of emotional as a therapeutic narrative,or the pursuit of the popularization and reason of therapeutic narrative,or combing the emotional textualization in therapeutic narrative,these clearly show the emotional "rationality" "features." Secondly,in the process of capitalist society production,the economic benefits of emotions have been fully exploited and utilized,and the emotions in the era of consumerism have become a new form of capital,which all reflect the "capitalization" characteristics of emotions.Finally,the reflective emotional phenomenon of modern Internet technology on the isolation of human body and emotion,and the emotional disappointment brought by Internet technology,are the result of emotional “digitalization”.The fourth part systematically reflects on the theory of "emotional capitalism",discusses the reshaping of the modern capitalist cultural framework by the "emotional capitalism" theory,the development of the critical theory of the Frankfurt school and the impetus to the deepening of Marxism.At the same time,it will also be clearly pointed out that the theory still has the exaggeration of the role of emotions in maintaining capitalism,the failure to find possible roads beyond "emotional capitalism",and finally to learn from and absorb the use of "emotional capitalism" theory.The beneficial ingredients serve the construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics and attach importance to the humanistic care for individual life.