Fetishism as a socio-psychological problem
Increasing the significance of external attributes of life, giving objects a super-significant super-valuable meaning – this is fetishism in a broad sense. In science, depending on the scope of the fetish, several types of fetishism are considered: commercial, erotic (sexual), religious, superstitious, monetary.
Commodity fetishism-personification of selected goods and giving them super meanings (goods are the main form of social connections). Modern society, in fact, is a consumer, the consciousness of people is utilitarian and seeks to possess and consume. For many, the only goal and incentive in life is the acquisition of desirable things that increase a person's status, increase their significance, and create an illusory power. In conditions when society evaluates by external attributes, the significance of many human qualities loses its value. This is a problem of society that especially affects young people during the period of active formation of the psyche and socialization. The replacement of social relations with commodity ones, the perception of oneself through the prism of possessing significant things, leads to dehumanization of the human personality itself. Then the person is not significant in itself with all the human that it is peculiar to, a person who does not have a significant amount of money, a phone, a popular brand, an expensive car may feel inferior.
The desire to increase their importance at the expense of things negatively affects the psyche of young people. Dehumanization of human relationships can confuse all important life priorities, and, above all, in this case, the object relations and the emotional sphere will suffer. Aspects that are often not realized and lead to problems in relationships are reflected in the following questions: What should be guided when choosing a life partner or friends? How to treat close people who do not have material values and have a low standard of living? What can you do to achieve what you want, and what can't you do? These are moral and moral dilemmas, but also problems that lead to serious psychological difficulties.
Relationships that were built through the prism of material or consumer relations to the partner are characterized by uncertainty, coldness of feelings, when a person does not understand what he feels and what his loved one feels: the relationship is used, they are convenient and profitable, but do not bring satisfaction and sooner or later something in them will begin to collapse. In society, it is also not uncommon to see the attitude to a person as a being without individuality and feelings, for example, in organizations where people are like pawns or cogs, someone decides that they can be switched, dismissed, replaced, and, at the same time, any methods are good. The employee's personal component, his influence on the team, and what he feels is not taken into account. Everything is solved only by calculation: saving money, replacing by age and gender preference, etc. Of course, in large institutions and even countries as a whole it is impossible to consider the personality and feelings of each, it is impossible to send to war, soldiers and crying about the psyche of the man responsible for
such orders protecting him from difficult feelings. However, in everyday communication, relationships, and friendships, the main thing is still humanism, even if it sounds old-fashioned.
Friendships are often also based on the principle of competition in the field of achievements, status, money, material values, the success of children and the most important thing in them-who is better and more, and the position of not being successful is extremely painful for self-esteem. In this case, there is also dehumanization, objectification of friendships, they are not the main pleasure from communication, they are loaded with competition, the main goal of which is to match or be better, which is certainly a reflection of problems with self-esteem. Most likely, this unstable self-esteem comes from childhood, when parents loved and praised only for good results, for fives, and the reaction of parents to lower results responded to the child's mental emptiness and a decrease in their significance. Such a child was not valued and loved unconditionally by his parents, but was an addition to them and had to increase their sense of self-importance at their own expense.
A similar psychological mechanism can lead to one of the most common features of modernity – the desire to improve their appearance and meet recognized standards of beauty. The desire to look good is quite normal, it's about when the desire to have the right shapes and appearance makes you go under the knife, often improving what does not require improvement, when the body becomes responsible for psychological comfort and for maintaining relationships. Especially bad when it turns into an addiction. The body of such a person, most often a woman, becomes a fetish in itself. Turning your body into an object that can be changed, "reshaped" in favor of fashion, to increase self-esteem or to maintain relationships, a woman splits her inner world, the feeling of unity of the body and mind, which was formed all previous life, changes her perception of reality. There is a split into the body and the psyche, into the new and old body, the body becomes an object that can be updated, rejuvenated, the illusion of time management is created, there may be a need for constant changes, because there is no limit to perfection. Being held hostage to the need for such changes is a serious problem.
Перевод: Ушурова Ясмина https://incatalog.kz/
Commodity fetishism-personification of selected goods and giving them super meanings (goods are the main form of social connections). Modern society, in fact, is a consumer, the consciousness of people is utilitarian and seeks to possess and consume. For many, the only goal and incentive in life is the acquisition of desirable things that increase a person's status, increase their significance, and create an illusory power. In conditions when society evaluates by external attributes, the significance of many human qualities loses its value. This is a problem of society that especially affects young people during the period of active formation of the psyche and socialization. The replacement of social relations with commodity ones, the perception of oneself through the prism of possessing significant things, leads to dehumanization of the human personality itself. Then the person is not significant in itself with all the human that it is peculiar to, a person who does not have a significant amount of money, a phone, a popular brand, an expensive car may feel inferior.
The desire to increase their importance at the expense of things negatively affects the psyche of young people. Dehumanization of human relationships can confuse all important life priorities, and, above all, in this case, the object relations and the emotional sphere will suffer. Aspects that are often not realized and lead to problems in relationships are reflected in the following questions: What should be guided when choosing a life partner or friends? How to treat close people who do not have material values and have a low standard of living? What can you do to achieve what you want, and what can't you do? These are moral and moral dilemmas, but also problems that lead to serious psychological difficulties.
Relationships that were built through the prism of material or consumer relations to the partner are characterized by uncertainty, coldness of feelings, when a person does not understand what he feels and what his loved one feels: the relationship is used, they are convenient and profitable, but do not bring satisfaction and sooner or later something in them will begin to collapse. In society, it is also not uncommon to see the attitude to a person as a being without individuality and feelings, for example, in organizations where people are like pawns or cogs, someone decides that they can be switched, dismissed, replaced, and, at the same time, any methods are good. The employee's personal component, his influence on the team, and what he feels is not taken into account. Everything is solved only by calculation: saving money, replacing by age and gender preference, etc. Of course, in large institutions and even countries as a whole it is impossible to consider the personality and feelings of each, it is impossible to send to war, soldiers and crying about the psyche of the man responsible for
such orders protecting him from difficult feelings. However, in everyday communication, relationships, and friendships, the main thing is still humanism, even if it sounds old-fashioned.
Friendships are often also based on the principle of competition in the field of achievements, status, money, material values, the success of children and the most important thing in them-who is better and more, and the position of not being successful is extremely painful for self-esteem. In this case, there is also dehumanization, objectification of friendships, they are not the main pleasure from communication, they are loaded with competition, the main goal of which is to match or be better, which is certainly a reflection of problems with self-esteem. Most likely, this unstable self-esteem comes from childhood, when parents loved and praised only for good results, for fives, and the reaction of parents to lower results responded to the child's mental emptiness and a decrease in their significance. Such a child was not valued and loved unconditionally by his parents, but was an addition to them and had to increase their sense of self-importance at their own expense.
A similar psychological mechanism can lead to one of the most common features of modernity – the desire to improve their appearance and meet recognized standards of beauty. The desire to look good is quite normal, it's about when the desire to have the right shapes and appearance makes you go under the knife, often improving what does not require improvement, when the body becomes responsible for psychological comfort and for maintaining relationships. Especially bad when it turns into an addiction. The body of such a person, most often a woman, becomes a fetish in itself. Turning your body into an object that can be changed, "reshaped" in favor of fashion, to increase self-esteem or to maintain relationships, a woman splits her inner world, the feeling of unity of the body and mind, which was formed all previous life, changes her perception of reality. There is a split into the body and the psyche, into the new and old body, the body becomes an object that can be updated, rejuvenated, the illusion of time management is created, there may be a need for constant changes, because there is no limit to perfection. Being held hostage to the need for such changes is a serious problem.
Перевод: Ушурова Ясмина https://incatalog.kz/