Summary: authority, expertise and risk

It was emphasised earlier that no one can disengage completely from the abstract systems of modernity: this is one of the consequences of living in a world of high-consequence risks. Yet, of course, lifestyles and lifestyle sectors can be tailored to navigate a course between the different possibilities offered in a world reconstituted through the impact of abstract systems. Trust may be suspended in some or many of the systems which routinely and more sporadically impinge on the individual's life. It would be very difficult indeed, if not impossible, to withdraw completely from the modern monetary system. Yet an individual could choose to keep whatever assets he had in the form of goods or personal property; and he might have as little to do with banks or other financial organisations as he could. Many possible shadings of scepticism or doubt can be reconciled with a pragmatic or fatalistic attitude towards abstract systems affecting one's life chances.

Others may take lifestyle decisions which propel them back in the direction of more traditional authorities. Religious fundamentalism, for example, provides clear-cut answers as to what to do in an era which has abandoned final authorities: those final authorities can be conjured up again by appeal to the age-old formulae of religion. The more `enclosing' a given religious order is, the more it `resolves' the problem of how to live in a world of multiple options. More attenuated forms of religious belief, however, may clearly also offer significant support in shaping significant life decisions.

Most of these dilemmas become particularly acute, or are experienced with special force, during the fateful moments of an individual's life. Since fateful moments, by definition, are highly consequential, the individual feels at a crossroads in terms of overall life-planning. Fateful moments are phases when people might choose to have recourse to more traditional authorities. In this sense, they may seek refuge in pre-established beliefs and in familiar modes of activity. On the other hand, fateful moments also often mark periods of reskilling and empowerment. They are points at which, no matter how reflexive an individual may be in the shaping of her self-identity, she has to sit up and take notice

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of new demands as well as new possibilities. At such moments, when life has to be seen anew, it is not surprising that endeavours at reskilling are likely to be particularly important and intensely pursued. Where consequential decisions are concerned, individuals are often stimulated to devote the time and energy necessary to generate increased mastery of the circumstances they confront. Fateful moments are transition points which have major implications not just for the circumstances of an individual's future conduct, but for self-identity. For consequential decisions, once taken, will reshape the reflexive project of identity through the lifestyle consequences which ensue.

Hence it is not surprising that at fateful moments individuals are today likely to encounter expert systems which precisely focus on the reconstruction of self-identity: counselling or therapy. A decision to enter therapy can generate empowerment. At the same time, it is important to add, such a decision is not different in nature from other lifestyle decisions made in the settings of modernity. What type of therapy should one pursue, and for how long? As the book Self-Therapy shows, it is perhaps possible for an individual effectively to reorient his life without the direct consultation of an expert or professional. On the other hand, many therapists hold that without regular contact with a professional counsellor there is no hope of real personal change. A very considerable diversity of therapies, all of which claim to treat an overlapping range of similar problems, now exist. As a measure of the level of disagreement between different schools, we might compare classical psychoanalysis with behavioural therapy based on conditioning. There are many therapists who abide by the basic tenets Freud established for psychoanalysis, and formulate their therapeutic procedures according to them. Yet some proponents of behaviour therapy claim that psychoanalysis is utterly without validity as a mode of therapy. In addition, a variety of subdivisions of psychoanalysis exist, coupled to dozens of other varying schools of thought and technique. The reflexive encounter with expert systems helping to reconstitute the self therefore expresses some of the central dilemmas to which modernity gives rise.

Date: 2016-04-22; view: 622