Alienation,the self,and television: Psychological life in mass culture

Abstract

The psychological reality of contemporary experience is that of alienation. Marcuse has referred to this profound alienation as the one dimensional character of mass culture. Virtually all possible experiences are leveled to the common denominator of the status quo which in turn becomes the norm with which individuals identify and in terms of which they seek fulfillment. Romanyshyn's phenomenological interpretation of psychological life, as a reality of lived reflection, provides the basis for an analysis of the dynamics of this alienation as it is cultivated by the mass media, specifically television. The constellation of television conditioned imagination and consumption oriented lifestyles results in a forgery of genuine psychological experience in which the self is disfigured and its transcendent possibilities are repressed.