Escapism: Difference between revisions

Content deleted Content added

Inline

Revision as of 19:19, 25 February 2013

Escapism is mental diversion by means of entertainment or recreation, as an "escape" from the perceived unpleasant or banal aspects of daily life. It can also be used as a term to define the actions people take to help relieve persisting feelings of depression or general sadness.

History

References

External links

Ernst Bloch, Utopia and Ideology Critique

@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 ==History==
-Entire [[industries]] have sprung up to foster a growing tendency of people to remove [[outline of self|themselves]] from the rigors of daily life.{{citation needed|date=October 2012}} Many activities that are normal parts of a [[self care|healthy existence]] (e.g., [[eating]], [[sleeping]], [[exercise]], [[Human sexual activity|sexual activity]]) can also become avenues of escapism when taken to extremes or out of proper context.
-In the context of being taken to an extreme, the [[word]] "escapism" carries a negative [[connotation]], suggesting that escapists are unhappy, with an [[emotional detachment|inability or unwillingness to connect meaningfully]] with the world.
-However, there are some who challenge the idea that escapism is fundamentally and exclusively negative. For instance, [[J. R. R. Tolkien]], responding to the [[Anglo-Saxon]] [[academic]] [[debate]] on escapism in the 1930s, wrote in his [[essay]] "[[On Fairy-Stories]]" that escapism had an element of [[emancipation]] in its attempt to figure a different [[reality]]. [[C. S. Lewis]] was also fond of humorously remarking that the usual enemies of escape were [[corrections officer|jailers]].
-Some [[social criticism|social critics]] warn of attempts by the powers that control [[society]] to provide means of escapism instead of actually bettering the [[quality of life|condition]] of the people. For example, [[Karl Marx]] wrote about religion as being the "[[opium of the people]]".
-Escapist societies appear often in literature. ''[[The Time Machine]]'' depicts the [[Eloi]], a lackadaisical, insouciant [[race (classification of human beings)|race]] of the future, and the horror their happy [[lifestyle (sociology)|lifestyle]] belies. The [[novel]] subtly [[critique of capitalism|criticizes capitalism]], or at least [[classism]], as a means of escape.  Escapist societies are common in [[dystopia]]n novels; for example,  in ''[[Fahrenheit 451]]'' society uses television and "seashell [[radios]]" to escape a life with strict [[regulations]] and the threat of the forthcoming [[war]]. In science fiction media escapism is often depicted as an extension of social evolution, as society becomes detached from physical reality and processing into a virtual one, examples include the virtual world of [[OZ (Summer Wars)|OZ]] in 2009 Japanese animated science fiction [[Summer Wars]] and the game "Society" in the 2009 American science fiction film [[Gamer (film)|Gamer]].
-[[Germany|German]] [[social philosopher]] [[Ernst Bloch]] wrote that [[utopia]]s and [[image]]s of fulfillment, however [[regression (psychology)|regressive]] they might be, also included an impetus for a radical [[social change]]. According to Bloch, [[social justice]] could not be realized without seeing things fundamentally differently. Something that is mere "[[daydream]]ing" or "escapism" from the viewpoint of a technological-rational society might be a seed for a new and more humane [[social order]], as it can be seen as an "immature, but [[honest]] substitute for [[revolution]]".
-The Norwegian psychologist Frode Stenseng has presented a dualistic model of escapism in relation to different types of activity engagements. He discusses the paradox that the [[Flow (psychology)|flow]] state (Csikszentmihalyi) resembles psychological states obtainable through actions such as drug abuse, sexual masochism, and suicide ideation (Baumeister). Accordingly, he deduces that the ''state of escape'' can have both positive and negative meanings and outcomes. Stenseng argues that there exists two forms of escapism with different affective outcomes dependent on the motivational focus that lays behind the immersion in the activity. Escapism in the form of ''self-suppression'' stems from motives to run away from unpleasant thoughts, self-perceptions, and emotions, whereas ''self-expansion'' stems from motives to gain positive experiences through the activity and to discover new aspects of self. Stenseng has developed the Escape scale to measure self-suppression and self-expansion in people´s favorite activities, such as sports, arts, and gaming. Empirical investigations of the model have shown that (1) the two dimensions are distinctively different with regards to affective outcomes, (2) that some individuals are more prone to engage through one type of escapism, and (3) that situational levels of well-being affects the type of escapism that becomes dominant at a specific time.
-Mind strictly follow any of these 5 stages of escapism or escape mechanism:
-#'''Rationalization'''(here)- Which means giving a socially acceptable reason for a failure by blaming a situation or a person. ex: I scored low because of problems at home.(its you who involved in those problems) I lost the game because of shouting crowd.(its you who listened to those things)
-#'''Projection'''<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projection_(psychology)</ref> Project them on yourself because you think that they are best in behavior, analysis, estimate, everything that matters to you. ex: Most physicists imitate Einstein to project themselves as intelligent.
-#'''Compensation'''<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compensation_(psychology)</ref> A person who repeatedly fails in an action compensates with another action in which he has rapid growth. ex: Hercules' intelligence was criticized by the public, which he then compensated with an extreme workout and became world's strongest man.
-#'''Fantasy formation'''(here)- which means imagining a fantasy(day-dream)to be so real through which mind can survive from the truth behind the scene.
-#'''Regression'''-<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regression_(psychology)</ref>
 ==References==