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Emotional Entanglements, Vulnerability, and the Search for Recognition: How is This Health?Susanna Trnka
When 22-year-old James wants to tell his boyfriend something important, he avoids face-to-face communication and messages him instead; “it’s easier to talk about your feelings online,” he explains, “because you can quickly change the topic.” James is one of many New Zealand youth who strategically employ distance to enable an intimacy that feels otherwise potentially uncontrollable. Young people, including James, are also, however, deeply attune to how online emotional engagements entail their own pitfalls. This includes the humiliation of being caught out by those unnecessarily vying for attention and the exhaustion of undertaking “emotional labour” on behalf of others. Drawing from Paul Ricouer’s theory of recognition alongside Emmanuel Levinas’ work on the “infinity” of the Other, this presentation examines young New Zealanders’ self-described communicative practices, in particular their careful navigation of online emotional entanglements to maximize meaningful connection while protecting themselves from inter-personal disappointments and threats. I argue that young people are often highly self-reflexive about their attempts to open up safe avenues for emotional disclosure. In doing so, I ask what kinds of emotional ideologies are at play in contemporary enactments of intimacy, distancing, and care. I also ask, what does any of this have to do with new understandings of health?
Susanna Trnka is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Auckland. Her research examines embodiment through a variety of lenses, including pain; humour; political violence and other forms of social crises; health; movement; and ideologies of “wellbeing.” Her most recent book, Healthization: Turning Life into Health (Pennsylvania University Press, 2025), examines young people's use of digital technology and ideas about health. She was recently the principal investigator on a multi-disciplinary research project examining young New Zealanders’ understandings of emotional and mental health.
Seminar will be held in English.
No registration is needed.
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Jilská 1, 111 00, Jilská 361/1, 110 00 Praha, Česko, Prague, Czech Republic
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