UC Santa Cruz UC Santa Cruz Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Labor and Lamentation: A Genealogy of Acedia, Alienated Labor, and Depressed Affects Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2f55g7fc Author Hefty, Adam Dylan Publication Date 2013 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ LABOR AND LAMENTATION: A GENEALOGY OF ACEDIA, ALIENATED LABOR, AND DEPRESSED AFFECTS A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in HISTORY OF CONSCIOUSNESS with an emphasis in PHILOSOPHY by Adam Dylan Hefty September 2013 The Dissertation of Adam Dylan Hefty is approved: ____________________________________ Professor Barbara Epstein, Chair ____________________________________ Professor Robert Meister ____________________________________ Distinguished Professor Emeritus David Hoy _____________________________ Tyrus Miller Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Labor and Lamentation: A Genealogy of Acedia, Alienated Labor, and Depressed Affects Table of Contents Title Page ....................................................................................................................... i Table of Contents .........................................................................................................iii Abstract ........................................................................................................................iv Acknowledgments ....................................................................................................... vi 1) Conjuncture and Method ......................................................................................... 1 2) The Acedia Problematic ......................................................................................... 24 3) Alienation, Laziness, and the Work of Depressed Affects in Capitalist Modernity ....................................................................................................................99 4) Subjective Labor under Late Capitalism .............................................................. 192 5) The Mood Disorder, a New Category; Mood, a Problem to Manage .................. 269 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 360 Figure 1-3: Charting Subjective Labor ..................................................................... 370 Bibliography ............................................................................................................. 373 iii Abstract Adam Dylan Hefty Labor and Lamentation: A Genealogy of Acedia, Alienated Labor, and Depressed Affects The increasing importance of symbolic and emotional forms of labor in capitalism and the democratic profusion of mood disorders such as depression are major dynamics of the social life of late modernity in the US. These elements of human life are treated as separate in our received, cultural categories, but experientially they seem to converge. Using methods of Foucauldian genealogy and critical theory, I excavate the history of this relationship and theorize its contemporary dynamics. The genealogy starts with medieval acedia, a condition in which inability to work and depressed affects appear as a single problem. Acedia is a partial predecessor of modern conditions such as sloth, ennui, and melancholia, the divisions of which trace affective and social divisions emerging over the course of industrial, capitalist modernity. Late modern capitalism generates types of work and work processes which I characterize as subjective labor, forms of work which require symbolic and affective aspects of workers’ subjectivities and intersubjective iv relationships. Management of workers’ moods and initiative becomes central to late capitalism. Late modernity articulates mental normalcy as a positive optimization of mood rather than eradicating abnormalities and a range of techniques of self care emerge, including anti-depressants, short-term psychotherapy, and alternative techniques such as meditation, mindfulness, and stress reduction. Both on the job and in “private” life, mood appears as a problem to be managed. Public discourses of depression are anachronistic at best if they treat work as a secondary question. At a philosophical level, this genealogy implies a need to historicize the concept of alienation. Marxian alienation is premised on the production of physical goods in an industrial labor process. Industrial production and managerial techniques are still central to capitalism as a whole, but in advanced capitalist countries, subjective labor becomes politically and arguably economically much more central. Alienation in an economy dominated by subjective labor can be less about a separation between the worker and the product and activity of labor and more about dissociation within the worker’s subjectivity. This renders late modern alienation as a problem which is irreducibly psychological and tied up with other dimensions of affective life. v Acknowledgments Without the feedback and support of my advisor, Barbara Epstein, this dissertation would not exist in anything like its current form. She entered into the intellectual world of my project on its own terms even when some of its theoretical frameworks clashed with her outlook. What emerged was a conversation about the topics which pushed me to articulate my ideas in a clearer and more grounded fashion. She also looked out for my progress as a graduate student with consistent care and concern. I feel deep gratitude for this intellectual partnership. Robert Meister taught me to think about acedia philosophically in relation to contemporary political dynamics. Taking his seminar and working for his class as a teaching assistant was a formative, inspiring intellectual experience that allowed me to conceive a key part of the initial trajectory of this project. He also helped me to think about the broad historical and theoretical vicissitudes of alienation. Working with David Hoy was critical for my attempt at a sustained, somewhat heterodox use of Foucauldian methodology and concepts in my dissertation. I came to value deeply his generosity of engagement and feedback. I’d also like to thank Angela Davis for her comments on the early, qualifying exam version of this project. vi Many friends and colleagues took an interest in my work; conversations with them inspired me to keep going and to articulate my thoughts for other people. It’s impossible to name all of the people who contributed in this way, but Lissette Olivares, Apryl Berney, Zhivka Valiavicharska, Trevor Sangrey, Lisa Stampnitzsky, Alexis Kargl, Joshua Brahinsky, Ari Cushner, Dawn Whitaker, Lucas McGranahan, and Johanna Rothe were very important interlocutors. While he may disagree with many of my conclusions, engaging with Charles Post around immaterial labor and precariat / new capitalism debates gave me a lot to think about and helped me sharpen my ideas. Writing partners helped me to keep working on a schedule and articulate bits of what I was thinking when the finish line was far from sight. I’d like to thank Yunnie Tsao Snyder, Alexandria Wright, Scout Calvert, and Rebecca Schein for their companionship, breaking the isolation of writing. Thanks to Harlan Weaver for a cat- sitting gig which was an ideal writing retreat at the very end. Alexis Shotwell gave me priceless advice on the dissertation writing process and academic life. She and Chris Dixon periodically restore my faith that there can be something generative and collective about the work of radicals in the academy. Alexis pointed me in the direction of Dorothy Duff Brown, whose help allowed me to conceptualize and alter my own work process. The idea that a quasi-monastic withdrawal from the world could be deeply political and communitarian, not just otherworldly, and that the activity of labor in small communities has something generative and not just authoritarian to say to modern life goes back for me to Deep Springs College. Many friends and classmates vii are wrapped up in that experience, but I’d like to specially thank Joshua Joy Kamensky and Patrick O’Connor for their engagement with me around these topics over the years. Studying with Jeff Lustig there was a formative experience; he is missed. This project stands at a level of philosophical and historical abstraction from many of the concerns which motivated it, but its personal meaning for me is deeply tied in with those experiences. Thinking together and trying to build something which connects fighting for a better world with the dignity and value of labor is a project which connects me with Abra Quinn, Brian Malone, Robert Wood, Isaac Silver, Jessy Lancaster, Amanda Armstrong, Michael-David Sasson, Joanna Misnik, Katy Fox- Hodess, Robert Caldwell, Jesse Saba Kirchner, Julie Jedlicka, James Illingworth, Dianne Feeley, Rachel Brahinsky, David Patt Jedlicka, J. Guevara, Sherwin Mendoza, Jordan Brocious, Kfir Cohen, Jessica Smith, Mary and Patrick Quinn, Jessica Taal, Shane Boyle, Kate Doyle Griffiths-Dingani, Shannon Ikebe, Anne Kelly, Blanca Missé, Michelle Glowa, Beezer de Martelly, Susan Dirr, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, Johanna Brenner, and many, many others. Continuing to work with them sustains my optimism of the will in a world that continues to need the clarity of a pessimistic, sometimes even melancholic intellect. Special thanks to Sara Smith, who is an indispensable