The Department of Digital Humanities welcomes Dr Leon Brenner, hosted by Dr Alfie Bown. This event will be followed by a drinks reception.

Beyond The Hyper-reality Principle

Freud’s conception of the reality principle posits that it is not an affirmation of “objective reality” but a psychic mechanism designed to safeguard the pleasure principle. For Freud, the reality principle does not stand apart as an independent or absolute truth; rather, it provides the psychic strata that enables the deferral of immediate satisfaction in pursuit of more sustained gratification that establishes the bonds between individuals in society.

In this talk we will explore the hyptohesis that contemporary media appears to have developed a new “reality principle”, one that, at face value, aligns with the post-truth era. However, this talk does not focus on critiquing the media’s departure from objective facts. Instead, it argues that media today has invented a hyper-reality principle, a structure that is more efficient in satisfying the pleasure principle than Freud’s original notion of reality. This hyper-reality principle seamlessly integrates curated illusions and immediate gratifications, making it an irresistible and enduring framework for psychic satisfaction.

Through the lens of media studies and psychoanalysis, the lecture examines how this hyper-reality principle reshapes our psychic and cultural relationship to reality itself. It explores the implications of a media landscape that no longer defers satisfaction but optimizes it, questioning whether the hyper-reality principle signifies not only a transformation of Freud’s theory but also a permanent shift in how the notion of a shared reality integrates social bonds.

Speaker's Info:

Leon S. Brenner (Ph.D) is a psychoanalyst and psychoanalytic theorist from Berlin. Brenner’s work draws from the Freudian and Lacanian traditions of psychoanalysis, and his interest lies in the understanding of the relationship between culture and psychopathology. His book The Autistic Subject: On the Threshold of Language, is a bestseller in psychology in Palgrave/Springer publishing in 2021. He is a founder of Lacanian Affinities Berlin(laLAB) and Unconscious Berlin.