Abstract
This paper is about the ways in which the human body has been objectified under and through the use of power. The article explains the different aspects and ways of objectification of the body and the hidden nature of human behaviour that results from activation of the inner human instincts - the death drive, called Thanatos (Note 1) and the life drive called Eros as a response to Thanatos. By using the theories of Freud, Nussbaum, Erikson, Fanon and Foucault, the relationship between the human body and external power is examined. Using some recent events (such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the world lockdown and the Black Lives Matter movement) human behaviour is seen to result from activation of the inner drives (Eros (Note 2) and Thanatos), but also to be linked to the psychosexual and psychosocial aspects of human development.
Highlights
Introduction and ConceptsObjectification is a process, yet a famous feminist concept, that defines a way of treating a person as an object
The two Freudian concepts of Eros and Thanatos come to explain a lot of social conflicts in nature - moments in human reality where the body positions itself alongside of being positioned externally, based on its urgently recalled instincts, but is used as an instrument by any type of power. These different positions of the human body, established by different power dynamics, will be evaluated by comparing and contrasting why, where, how, from what perspective, through which interaction and in what relation the human body is exploited or used to create a conflict that leads to its becoming an instrument of power
In whatever way it has been positioned or circumstanced, the body becomes an instrument of the hidden agitations of the psyche during the crisis of Covid-19
Summary
Objectification is a process, yet a famous feminist concept, that defines a way of treating a person as an object. According to Martha Nussbaum, who argues about the problematic nature of ways of treating human beings (mainly with reference to women in her theory), there are seven features in this social phenomenon of objectification. These are instrumentality, denial of autonomy, inertness, fungibility, violability, ownership and denial of subjectivity. Looking more deeply into all of them it may be seen that they have in common a moment of fragmentarization of this objectification, which involves treating a person as a body and treating the body as an object The link between these two is an instrumentality in use that demonstrates unconscious moments of complex human behaviour appearing in the collective reality. The article aims to explain objectification through the use of power as a main instrument and how objectifying the body is one aspect of the inner human death drive and the nature of psychological human existence
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