Eva Illouz rethinks emotions

"I believe almost any emotion is neither positive nor negative. Psychologically it makes sense to speak about them in positive and negative emotions. As a sociologist I look at the function of emotions, envy for example, while personally not a pleasent emotion, can serve many positive functions for a society." With these sentences, sociologist Eva Illouz opens up an insight into her way of thinking and looking at emotions and raises an essential question that she deals with in her research: How do emotions influence our society, beyond their apparent moral judgment? While psychology categorizes emotions as positive or negative, Illouz looks at their function - for example, how envy can drive us or hope can carry us through insecurities.

The French-Israeli sociologist has been studying the sociology of emotions for over two decades. Her books on consumer culture and love have become bestsellers, and her work has changed the way we think about emotions and their social significance. With her latest book "Explosive Modernity", she once again gives us insights into the dynamics of our turbulent present.

In political and social discourse, emotions are often seen as irrational, as the antagonist of the mind and therefore something negative that should be suppressed. But Eva Illouz sees things differently. In her new book, she shows how emotions such as fear, hope, nostalgia, disappointment, jealousy and envy form the basis of many social decisions and developments.

Illouz explains: "How seriously we take emotions to guide ourselves is an aspect of modernity. Emotions have always existed, we simply did not really consult them, but now they really have become the ground of reality, which is the ground for making them much more explosive". Our time is characterized by the fact that emotions increasingly form the basis of many of our decisions and a kind of guideline to which we orient ourselves, making them more explosive than ever.

At a book launch at Zeppelin University, Illouz presents her new book shortly after its publication. Despite the rather simple structure - a reading aloud of selected passages from her book - Illouz clearly manages to captivate the audience with her exciting and intellectual thoughts, which she brings to the point in a concise and catchy way.

Each chapter of her book is dedicated to a specific emotion. For example, she analyzes how hope becomes an anchor for survival in troubled times, or how envy can be not only destructive but also productive by driving competition and innovation. Her approach of always analyzing emotions in their sociological and historical context makes it clear that emotions cannot be viewed in isolation, but always interact with social developments.

Why did Illouz choose these particular emotions for her book? "There was nothing systematic in my choosing these emotions, I just went with whatever interested me personally, and some of them imposed themselves because of literature, for example because of some books that I have read and liked," she explains.

It is precisely this reference to literature and her way of linking sociological theories with historical moments, literature, art and philosophy that makes Illouz's work so impressive and catchy. Shakespeare, Aristotle or figures from novels - for Illouz they are not mere quotations, but living tools to make emotions understandable in their social context.

In her latest book in particular, she focuses on the novel, partly because in her opinion it embodies a genre that gives us an insight into people's feelings and how emotions can be experienced and expressed: "Fiction is a prime tool of emotional socialization, it is not the only one by a long shot, literature is much less promising than it used to be... but fiction is nevertheless one place where we learn emotion".

Her talent for combining diverse impressions was also evident in her reading at ZU. The number of lively questions from the audience after the reading clearly shows the impact of her words. The diversity of the audience, from students and professors to an impressive number of external visitors from the surrounding area, also shows how relevant Illouz's work is, especially in today's world.

It is no coincidence that Eva Illouz, Director of Studies at the Centre européen de sociologie et de science politique (CSE-EHESS) in Paris and Senior Professor of Theory of Emotions & Modernity at Zeppelin University, is one of the most influential voices in sociology. Her lectures and books are fascinating not only because of their intellectual content, but also because of her ability to get to the heart of complex issues in an elegant and understandable way. Illouz represents a new way of thinking about what shapes our society - and shows how important it is to understand emotions as central elements of our world.