Page 55 - Cultural Theory

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••• Chris Rojek •••

The first is the blasé personality, which we have already touched upon above. The blasé
personality develops such an acute consciousness of being assailed by form that it
develops a defence mechanism of indifference. Nothing surprises or enchants it. It is
not moved by tragedy or triumph, but maintains an even keel in the face of all new
sensory data and information. The blasé personality is really a form of social retreatism,
since it is predicated on disengaging with the variety and diversity of exchange and
interaction. Simmel associates this retreatism with the diminution of Modern experi-
ence since it implies the forlorn ambition of dealing with Modernity on one’s own
terms as if others do not matter. In his (1971) essays on ‘Prostitution’,‘The Poor’ and
‘The Miser and the Spendthrift’ he discloses many important aspects of the blasé per-
sonality, especially its delusional qualities.
The second distinctive personality type that coalesces in the Metropolis, is the
neurasthenic personality. This is a psychology that reacts to the rapidly changing stim-
uli of the metropolis by developing a heightened state of excitement and nervous-
ness. Neurasthenics are addicted to fashion, gossip and new relationships. Stability
and calm is unendurable. Instead life is turned into an unquenchable quest for new
sensations and stimuli. This quest is unquenchable because no new sensation or
stimulus can be enduring. It is precisely the constantly changing nature of sensations
and stimuli that is attractive. But this attraction is also dangerous because the neuras-
thenic recognizes that the anticipation of fulfilment can never be achieved through
the realization of interaction. The point at which realization presents itself, is the
point at which the neurasthenic loses interest and departs for fresh stimuli. The
neurasthenic personality is another example of retreatism since it presupposes that
interaction and exchange can never be more than fleeting and fragmentary. The
achievement of the whole personality remains permanently out of the neurasthenic’s
grasp since it requires a degree of commitment that is beyond his capacity to make.
Both types remain recognizable features of today’s cities. They reflect Simmel’s the-
sis that objective culture dominates over subjective culture in damaging ways.
Conversely he emphasizes the fecundity of relationships in the metropolis which
produces unprecedented volumes of exchange and interaction. This in turn produces
a fountain of rapid and unbroken internal and external stimuli. Because the metrop-
olis is the concentration of objective culture it subjects the individual to extreme
pressures of standardization and levelling down. Although the blasé and neuras-
thenic responses involve retreatism they are often expressed in stylized ways that
emphasize eccentricity and difference. Through fashion, adornment and style of
sociability the individual resists the ‘levelling down’ effects of objective culture. The
paradox of the general blasé and neurasthenic attitudes is that they contribute to the
enhancement of external diversity as the individual resorts to strategies of extreme
subjectivism in order to combat standardization. These strategies lend colour to the
external appearance of metropolitan exchange and interaction. However, they do
not counteract the effect of objective culture. Indeed their proliferation may be read
as a measure of the implosion of subjective culture as individuals resort to style and
form to proclaim difference. The decisive tendencies of Modernity to replace essence
with appearance and content with form are therefore reinforced.
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