The anxiety of individualisation

From On Anxiety by Reneta Salecl, loc 2092:

The Other is for the subject always ‘anxiogen’, since it constantly forces the subject to ask ‘Who am I?’, and especially, ‘Who am I for the Other?’ However, as this book has shown, in post-industrial societies, the subject is also perceived as a self-inventor and as someone who is actually freer from the constraints of other people than our predecessors. So if, on the one hand the subject is still concerned about the question about the desire of the Other (i.e. how others regard them and how they are regarded in society as a whole), on the other hand, the subject is under pressure to make a choice about his or her life independently of social constraints.

#anxiety #detraditionalization #individualisation #Lacan #RenetaSalecl