What do you think?
Rate this book
The Soul at Work: From Alienation to Autonomy
We can reach every point in the world but, more importantly, we can be reached from any point in the world. Privacy and its possibilities are abolished. Attention is under siege everywhere. Not silence but uninterrupted noise, not the red desert, but a cognitive space overcharged with nervous incentives to act: this is the alienation of our times....
—from The Soul at Work
Capital has managed to overcome the dualism of body and soul by establishing a workforce in which everything we mean by the Soul—language, creativity, affects—is mobilized for its own benefit. Industrial production put to work bodies, muscles, and arms. Now, in the sphere of digital technology and cyberculture, exploitation involves the mind, language, and emotions in order to generate value—while our bodies disappear in front of our computer screens.
In this, his newest book, Franco "Bifo" Berardi—key member of the Italian Autonomist movement and a close associate of Félix Guattari—addresses these new forms of estrangement. In the philosophical landscape of the 1960s and 1970s, the Hegelian concept of alienation was used to define the harnessing of subjectivity. The estrangement of workers from their labor, the feeling of alienation they experienced, and their refusal to submit to it became the bases for a human community that remained autonomous from capital. But today a new condition of alienation has taken root in which workers commonly and voluntarily work overtime, the population is tethered to cell phones and Blackberries, debt has become a postmodern form of slavery, and antidepressants are commonly used to meet the unending pressure of production. As a result, the conditions for community have run aground and new philosophical categories are needed. The Soul at Work is a clarion call for a new collective effort to reclaim happiness.
The Soul at Work is Bifo's long overdue introduction to English-speaking readers. This Semiotext(e) edition is also the book's first appearance in any language.
Foreign Agents series
Distributed for Semiotext(e)
—from The Soul at Work
Capital has managed to overcome the dualism of body and soul by establishing a workforce in which everything we mean by the Soul—language, creativity, affects—is mobilized for its own benefit. Industrial production put to work bodies, muscles, and arms. Now, in the sphere of digital technology and cyberculture, exploitation involves the mind, language, and emotions in order to generate value—while our bodies disappear in front of our computer screens.
In this, his newest book, Franco "Bifo" Berardi—key member of the Italian Autonomist movement and a close associate of Félix Guattari—addresses these new forms of estrangement. In the philosophical landscape of the 1960s and 1970s, the Hegelian concept of alienation was used to define the harnessing of subjectivity. The estrangement of workers from their labor, the feeling of alienation they experienced, and their refusal to submit to it became the bases for a human community that remained autonomous from capital. But today a new condition of alienation has taken root in which workers commonly and voluntarily work overtime, the population is tethered to cell phones and Blackberries, debt has become a postmodern form of slavery, and antidepressants are commonly used to meet the unending pressure of production. As a result, the conditions for community have run aground and new philosophical categories are needed. The Soul at Work is a clarion call for a new collective effort to reclaim happiness.
The Soul at Work is Bifo's long overdue introduction to English-speaking readers. This Semiotext(e) edition is also the book's first appearance in any language.
Foreign Agents series
Distributed for Semiotext(e)
232 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
60 people are currently reading
2361 people want to read
About the author
Franco "Bifo" Berardi
128 books460 followersFranco "Bifo" Berardi (born 2 November 1948 in Bologna, Italy) is an Italian Marxist theorist and activist in the autonomist tradition, whose work mainly focuses on the role of the media and information technology within post-industrial capitalism. Berardi has written over two dozen published books, as well as a more extensive number of essays and speeches.
Unlike orthodox Marxists, Berardi's autonomist theories draw on psychoanalysis, schizoanalysis and communication theory to show how subjectivity and desire are bound up with the functioning of the capitalism system, rather than portraying events such as the financial crisis of 2008 merely as an example of the inherently contradictory logic of capitalist accumulation. Thus, he argues against privileging labour in critique and says that "the solution to the economic difficulty of the situation cannot be solved with economic means: the solution is not economic." Human emotions and embodied communication becomes increasingly central to the production and consumption patterns that sustain capital flows in post-industrial society, and as such Berardi uses the concepts of "cognitariat" and "info labour" to analyze this psycho-social process. Among Berardi's other concerns are cultural representations and expectations about the future — from proto-Fascist Futurism to post-modern cyberpunk (1993). This represents a greater concern with ideas and cultural expectations than the determinist-materialist expression of a Marxism which is often confined to purely economic or systemic analysis.
(via Wikipedia)
Unlike orthodox Marxists, Berardi's autonomist theories draw on psychoanalysis, schizoanalysis and communication theory to show how subjectivity and desire are bound up with the functioning of the capitalism system, rather than portraying events such as the financial crisis of 2008 merely as an example of the inherently contradictory logic of capitalist accumulation. Thus, he argues against privileging labour in critique and says that "the solution to the economic difficulty of the situation cannot be solved with economic means: the solution is not economic." Human emotions and embodied communication becomes increasingly central to the production and consumption patterns that sustain capital flows in post-industrial society, and as such Berardi uses the concepts of "cognitariat" and "info labour" to analyze this psycho-social process. Among Berardi's other concerns are cultural representations and expectations about the future — from proto-Fascist Futurism to post-modern cyberpunk (1993). This represents a greater concern with ideas and cultural expectations than the determinist-materialist expression of a Marxism which is often confined to purely economic or systemic analysis.
(via Wikipedia)
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
August 16, 2020
Bayıla bayıla okudum. Çalışmak ,depresyon, psikoterapi, politik mücadele kavramlarına bakışımı çok zenginleştirdi. Ayrıca Franco ''Bifo'', bir sürü alıntılarla da bahsettiği konularla alakalı kimler ne demiş çok güzel, tek tek anlatıyor.(Özellikle Baudrillard, Guattari ve Deleuze'den alıntı yapıyor en çok.) Çoğu şeye bakışımı gerçekten çok etkileyen bi kitap oldu.
İnsanların nasıl olup da işi ve çalışmayı bu kadar sevdiğini, işleri ile aralarındaki bağları daha iyi anlıyorum artık, kafamdaki bazı deli sorulara çok güzel cevaplar verdi ''Bifo''. Çok fazla terimlerle dolu bir dili var kitabın, hatta bazı cümleleri anlamak için defalarca okuma gerekti, bazı yerleri anlayamadım. Tekrar okumayı düşünüyorum bu nedenle. Birileri merak etse de öğrendiklerim hakkında konuşsak hani...
Bir de alıntı :
Sanayi fabrikaları bedeni kullanmış, bedeni ruhun montaj hattının berisinde bırakmaya zorlamıştı, böylece işçi ruhsuz bir beden gibi görünür olmuştu. Gayrimaddi fabrika ise bizden ruhumuzu -zekamızı, duyarlılığımızı, yaratıcılığımızı ve dilimizi- kullanılabilir halde tutmamızı istiyor. İşe yaramaz hale gelen bedenimiz isteksizce oyun sahasının kenarında dikiliyor, onu eğlendirmek, hoş tutmak için vücut bakımı ve cinsellik üzerinden işleyen ticari ağlara sığınıyoruz. Yalnız kalan ruhun bedenle bir bağı yoktur artık, onu yönlendiren otomatizmlerin bakımına bırakmıştır kendini.
--
Beş yıl aradan sonra ilave (oldukça kişisel) yorum
2015 yılında, üniversiteden mezun olmamın üzerinden bir sene geçmiş, kaygılarla doluyken karşıma çıkmıştı bu kitap. Hayatımla, mezuniyetimle, mesleğimle ne yapmam gerektiği sorularıyla doluydum; bu soruların büyük kısmı bana sorulan sorulardı ama o kadar çok sorulmuşlardı ki artık benim sorularım haline gelmişti. Ve mezun olmamın üzerinden üç ay geçip Psikolog olarak ilk işime girince, tüm bu soruların cevaplarının, aslında bedenimle ne yapmak istediğim sorusu üzerine temellendiğini fark ettim.
Bu kitabı okumamla, hayatım ciddi anlamda gidişat değiştirdi. Kendime başka sorular sormaya başladım. Neyi istemediğim gayet ortadaydı ama neyi istediğimi bulmak ve üstelik onun peşinde koşmak oldukça zorken, istemediğin şeyi yapmak gerçekten çok rahatlatıcıydı. Ama istemediğim şeyi yapmamak konusunda irade göstermeye başladım, mezun olduktan sonra her yılın bir yarısını çalışıp biriktirerek geçirdim, bir sonraki çalışmaya başlamam da param bitince oluyordu. Bazen çok darda kalıp, çirkin kostumler giyerek deterjan dağıttığım oldu. Ama kısacık bir çalışma bile, tüketim alışkanlıklarıma göre uzunca bir süre yetecek kadar kazanmamı sağlıyordu. En son 2017 yılında, çok isteyerek girdiğim bir işte altı ay çalıştıktan ve üzerimdeki etkilerini gördükten sonra, bir daha düzenli bir işe girmemeye -en azından tekrar isteyene kadar- karar verdim. Şöyle böyle derken, bir şekilde 2019 yılına kadar şehir hayatında çalışmadan yaşamayı bi şekilde başardım.
Fakat yine de, depresyon eğiliminden ve kaygılardan tam olarak kurtulduğum söylenemezdi. Sadece onların denetiminde yaşamamak için olanca inadımla direniyordum. Sonra bir şekilde, bu yaz yolum önce Kaz Dağları'nda yapılacak madene karşı sürdürülen direnişe düştü. Ardından da orada tanıştığım insanların yanına, üzüm toplamaya Çanakkale'nin köylerinden birisine geldim ve altı aydır da buradayım. Burada olduğum süre sonunda, bedenim ve zihnim arasındaki bağların ne derece zedelenmiş olduğunu fark etmem, en yoğun keşfim oldu. Sanki zihnim buraya geldiğimden beri, ciddi anlamda bedenime yerleşiyormuş gibi hisediyorum. Önceki dönemde yazdıklarıma baktığımda, bir şekilde hepsi bedenimin ve zihnimin iki farklı bütün olduğu kaygısıyla yazılmış şeyler. Bu iki bütünü kaynaştıramama kaygıma değinen bir şeyler var hepsinde. Mesela yazdığım bir şiire: ''İki kendi, biri ben biri beden'' diye bir isim vermem buna en keskin örnek. Şimdi dönüp bu kitaba beş yıl önce yazdığım yoruma baktığımda şu alıntıyı görüyorum:
Yalnız kalan ruhun bedenle bir bağı yoktur artık, onu yönlendiren otomatizmlerin bakımına bırakmıştır kendini.
Hala tam olarak bütünleşmiş olduğum söylenemez ama keşif sürecim gayet memnun edici bir doğrultuda ilerliyor. En azından günün büyük bir kısmında, bedenim neredeyse zihim de tam olarak orada oluyor- ki geçen sene en çok şikayetçi olduğum şeylerden birisi, uyumaya çalışırken düşüncelerimin hızından uyuyamamaktı; uyandığımda ise zihnim öyle hızlı düşünmeye başlıyordu ki, uyandığımı fark etmemden önce düşünmeye başladığımı fark ediyordum.
Şimdi kendimi bulduğum yerde, bu kitabın emeği oldukça büyük. Ve bu kitabı beş yıl önce okumuş olmama rağmen, öğrendiklerimi işleme ve anlama sürecinin hala bitmediğini görüyorum. Edebiyata, harflere, kelimelere; bunları kullanan, birbiriyle paylaşan insanların gücüne, hayatta inandığım her şeyden çok inanıyorum.
İnsanların nasıl olup da işi ve çalışmayı bu kadar sevdiğini, işleri ile aralarındaki bağları daha iyi anlıyorum artık, kafamdaki bazı deli sorulara çok güzel cevaplar verdi ''Bifo''. Çok fazla terimlerle dolu bir dili var kitabın, hatta bazı cümleleri anlamak için defalarca okuma gerekti, bazı yerleri anlayamadım. Tekrar okumayı düşünüyorum bu nedenle. Birileri merak etse de öğrendiklerim hakkında konuşsak hani...
Bir de alıntı :
Sanayi fabrikaları bedeni kullanmış, bedeni ruhun montaj hattının berisinde bırakmaya zorlamıştı, böylece işçi ruhsuz bir beden gibi görünür olmuştu. Gayrimaddi fabrika ise bizden ruhumuzu -zekamızı, duyarlılığımızı, yaratıcılığımızı ve dilimizi- kullanılabilir halde tutmamızı istiyor. İşe yaramaz hale gelen bedenimiz isteksizce oyun sahasının kenarında dikiliyor, onu eğlendirmek, hoş tutmak için vücut bakımı ve cinsellik üzerinden işleyen ticari ağlara sığınıyoruz. Yalnız kalan ruhun bedenle bir bağı yoktur artık, onu yönlendiren otomatizmlerin bakımına bırakmıştır kendini.
--
Beş yıl aradan sonra ilave (oldukça kişisel) yorum
2015 yılında, üniversiteden mezun olmamın üzerinden bir sene geçmiş, kaygılarla doluyken karşıma çıkmıştı bu kitap. Hayatımla, mezuniyetimle, mesleğimle ne yapmam gerektiği sorularıyla doluydum; bu soruların büyük kısmı bana sorulan sorulardı ama o kadar çok sorulmuşlardı ki artık benim sorularım haline gelmişti. Ve mezun olmamın üzerinden üç ay geçip Psikolog olarak ilk işime girince, tüm bu soruların cevaplarının, aslında bedenimle ne yapmak istediğim sorusu üzerine temellendiğini fark ettim.
Bu kitabı okumamla, hayatım ciddi anlamda gidişat değiştirdi. Kendime başka sorular sormaya başladım. Neyi istemediğim gayet ortadaydı ama neyi istediğimi bulmak ve üstelik onun peşinde koşmak oldukça zorken, istemediğin şeyi yapmak gerçekten çok rahatlatıcıydı. Ama istemediğim şeyi yapmamak konusunda irade göstermeye başladım, mezun olduktan sonra her yılın bir yarısını çalışıp biriktirerek geçirdim, bir sonraki çalışmaya başlamam da param bitince oluyordu. Bazen çok darda kalıp, çirkin kostumler giyerek deterjan dağıttığım oldu. Ama kısacık bir çalışma bile, tüketim alışkanlıklarıma göre uzunca bir süre yetecek kadar kazanmamı sağlıyordu. En son 2017 yılında, çok isteyerek girdiğim bir işte altı ay çalıştıktan ve üzerimdeki etkilerini gördükten sonra, bir daha düzenli bir işe girmemeye -en azından tekrar isteyene kadar- karar verdim. Şöyle böyle derken, bir şekilde 2019 yılına kadar şehir hayatında çalışmadan yaşamayı bi şekilde başardım.
Fakat yine de, depresyon eğiliminden ve kaygılardan tam olarak kurtulduğum söylenemezdi. Sadece onların denetiminde yaşamamak için olanca inadımla direniyordum. Sonra bir şekilde, bu yaz yolum önce Kaz Dağları'nda yapılacak madene karşı sürdürülen direnişe düştü. Ardından da orada tanıştığım insanların yanına, üzüm toplamaya Çanakkale'nin köylerinden birisine geldim ve altı aydır da buradayım. Burada olduğum süre sonunda, bedenim ve zihnim arasındaki bağların ne derece zedelenmiş olduğunu fark etmem, en yoğun keşfim oldu. Sanki zihnim buraya geldiğimden beri, ciddi anlamda bedenime yerleşiyormuş gibi hisediyorum. Önceki dönemde yazdıklarıma baktığımda, bir şekilde hepsi bedenimin ve zihnimin iki farklı bütün olduğu kaygısıyla yazılmış şeyler. Bu iki bütünü kaynaştıramama kaygıma değinen bir şeyler var hepsinde. Mesela yazdığım bir şiire: ''İki kendi, biri ben biri beden'' diye bir isim vermem buna en keskin örnek. Şimdi dönüp bu kitaba beş yıl önce yazdığım yoruma baktığımda şu alıntıyı görüyorum:
Yalnız kalan ruhun bedenle bir bağı yoktur artık, onu yönlendiren otomatizmlerin bakımına bırakmıştır kendini.
Hala tam olarak bütünleşmiş olduğum söylenemez ama keşif sürecim gayet memnun edici bir doğrultuda ilerliyor. En azından günün büyük bir kısmında, bedenim neredeyse zihim de tam olarak orada oluyor- ki geçen sene en çok şikayetçi olduğum şeylerden birisi, uyumaya çalışırken düşüncelerimin hızından uyuyamamaktı; uyandığımda ise zihnim öyle hızlı düşünmeye başlıyordu ki, uyandığımı fark etmemden önce düşünmeye başladığımı fark ediyordum.
Şimdi kendimi bulduğum yerde, bu kitabın emeği oldukça büyük. Ve bu kitabı beş yıl önce okumuş olmama rağmen, öğrendiklerimi işleme ve anlama sürecinin hala bitmediğini görüyorum. Edebiyata, harflere, kelimelere; bunları kullanan, birbiriyle paylaşan insanların gücüne, hayatta inandığım her şeyden çok inanıyorum.
February 10, 2025
In his Letter on Humanism Heidegger already shows how humanism is in danger: it is actually condemned by the 'beyond the human' that is implicit in the mathematization and the digitalization of knowledge of knowledge, and by the automatization of life. The will to power produced the instruments of its own end, and the end of human freedom, that is to say the quintessentially human: since human is situated in a space of freedom that technology eliminates.
It should not be inferred that Berardi meditates on Heidegger in this remarkable book. The Soul At Work is about labor, this practice of work, about the wages in which we wallow or wither. The text is also about the flux about what constitutes labor in the technological world of data and automation. This present crisis is one of Semiocapitalism: the outgrowth of our virtual economies and the prevalence of the Cognitariat - the knowledge worker and all that such entails.
Berardi begins his book with an examination of social philosophy from Hegel through the epistemological break between early and late Marx and on through Gramsci and Marcuse. The effect of such Leftist thought on the changing labor realities of the 1960s and 70s is explored. There a trio of tempests which engage burgeoning techno-realities of the 80s and 90s: Deleuze/Guattari, Foucault and Baudrillard. This is an interesting section, bubbling with thought.
Soul At Work is a much more rigorous book than Heroes, my introduction to Beradi. I am glad for his meticulous construction, though aspects remain speculation in my opinion. That said, it is refreshing to encounter the following diagnosis and prescription in these jaded times.
Society does not need more work, more jobs, more competition. On the contrary: we need a massive reduction in work-time, a prodigious liberation of life from the social factory, in order to reweave the fabric of the social relation.
It should not be inferred that Berardi meditates on Heidegger in this remarkable book. The Soul At Work is about labor, this practice of work, about the wages in which we wallow or wither. The text is also about the flux about what constitutes labor in the technological world of data and automation. This present crisis is one of Semiocapitalism: the outgrowth of our virtual economies and the prevalence of the Cognitariat - the knowledge worker and all that such entails.
Berardi begins his book with an examination of social philosophy from Hegel through the epistemological break between early and late Marx and on through Gramsci and Marcuse. The effect of such Leftist thought on the changing labor realities of the 1960s and 70s is explored. There a trio of tempests which engage burgeoning techno-realities of the 80s and 90s: Deleuze/Guattari, Foucault and Baudrillard. This is an interesting section, bubbling with thought.
Soul At Work is a much more rigorous book than Heroes, my introduction to Beradi. I am glad for his meticulous construction, though aspects remain speculation in my opinion. That said, it is refreshing to encounter the following diagnosis and prescription in these jaded times.
Society does not need more work, more jobs, more competition. On the contrary: we need a massive reduction in work-time, a prodigious liberation of life from the social factory, in order to reweave the fabric of the social relation.
September 13, 2010
Who doesn't want to read?: "Society does not need more work, more jobs, more competition. On the contrary: we need a massive reduction in work-time, a prodigious liberation of life from the social factory, in order to reweave the fabric of the social relation."
January 15, 2015
This is one of the most inspiring works I've read in a while. The Italian Marxist Berardi offers a fresh new perspective on contemporary society and advice for its overcoming.
He starts off by examining the changing socio-economic conditions in the developed world since the last great anti-capitalist revolts of the 1960s. He claims that progress made by capitalism in liberal society was a consequence of leftist grassroots movements and social democracy, rather than the system's "internal contradictions". Without anyone to revolt, the system would have gone on with 19th century-style exploitation indefinitely. Berardi abandons the traditional Marxist paradigm of the working class and instead focuses on the new class of intellectual laborers that developed in the West - he refers to this class as "cognitariat", and sees the future lying in the hands of these intellectual workers. Likewise, he does not see the current economic crisis as caused by capitalism's internal contradictions, but rather as a consequence of overworking of the cognitariat. As such, he uses the term "depression", rather than "crisis", and offers a psychological explanation for it, influenced by Deleuze & Guattari.
The current, postindustrial system, which he termed Semiocapitalism, rests, as its name suggests, on production of signs and meanings. It is essentially social consensus, rather than labor or utility, that creates value and thus leads to an accumulation of wealth. The problem of such a system lies in the subjection of all human intellectual capacities ("the soul" from the title) to the wealth-making process. The cognitariat, unlike the proletariat, is enslaved by the system both physically and psychically. In the industrial era, the workers were at least only enslaved physically, while their intellect remained free. The new fusion leads to inability to think outside of the confines of the system, and the prevailing sense of helplessness in an automatized world devoid of alternatives. The cognitariat's consciousness is singular with capitalism, and thus unable to revolt against it. It is completely engulfed in the circle of production and consumption. The power of the ruling class does not rest in economic or political coercion, but in the subtle, ideological and linguistic hegemony.
As the working class has undergone fundamental change in the last four decades, Berardi argues that the subversive role in the future is not reserved for the industrial workers, but rather for the cognitariat, who will eventually be forced to think outside of the box when faced with the crumbling of the currently totalizing global system:
"The anti-capitalistic movement of the future won't be a movement of the poor, but of the wealthy. The real wealthy of the future will be those who will succeed in creating forms of autonomous consumption, mental models of need reduction, habitat models for the sharing of indispensable resources. This requires the creation of dissipative wealth refrains, or of frugal and ascetic wealth."
In short, Berardi calls for a deep rethinking of the society we live in and finding of alternative lifestyles that cannot be commodified by the capitalist system. Although the book offers some hints of what is to be done, it is essentially left up to the reader to discover that individually. Fortunately, in our information-saturated society, this is not too difficult of a task. Thinking outside of the box, however, is.
He starts off by examining the changing socio-economic conditions in the developed world since the last great anti-capitalist revolts of the 1960s. He claims that progress made by capitalism in liberal society was a consequence of leftist grassroots movements and social democracy, rather than the system's "internal contradictions". Without anyone to revolt, the system would have gone on with 19th century-style exploitation indefinitely. Berardi abandons the traditional Marxist paradigm of the working class and instead focuses on the new class of intellectual laborers that developed in the West - he refers to this class as "cognitariat", and sees the future lying in the hands of these intellectual workers. Likewise, he does not see the current economic crisis as caused by capitalism's internal contradictions, but rather as a consequence of overworking of the cognitariat. As such, he uses the term "depression", rather than "crisis", and offers a psychological explanation for it, influenced by Deleuze & Guattari.
The current, postindustrial system, which he termed Semiocapitalism, rests, as its name suggests, on production of signs and meanings. It is essentially social consensus, rather than labor or utility, that creates value and thus leads to an accumulation of wealth. The problem of such a system lies in the subjection of all human intellectual capacities ("the soul" from the title) to the wealth-making process. The cognitariat, unlike the proletariat, is enslaved by the system both physically and psychically. In the industrial era, the workers were at least only enslaved physically, while their intellect remained free. The new fusion leads to inability to think outside of the confines of the system, and the prevailing sense of helplessness in an automatized world devoid of alternatives. The cognitariat's consciousness is singular with capitalism, and thus unable to revolt against it. It is completely engulfed in the circle of production and consumption. The power of the ruling class does not rest in economic or political coercion, but in the subtle, ideological and linguistic hegemony.
As the working class has undergone fundamental change in the last four decades, Berardi argues that the subversive role in the future is not reserved for the industrial workers, but rather for the cognitariat, who will eventually be forced to think outside of the box when faced with the crumbling of the currently totalizing global system:
"The anti-capitalistic movement of the future won't be a movement of the poor, but of the wealthy. The real wealthy of the future will be those who will succeed in creating forms of autonomous consumption, mental models of need reduction, habitat models for the sharing of indispensable resources. This requires the creation of dissipative wealth refrains, or of frugal and ascetic wealth."
In short, Berardi calls for a deep rethinking of the society we live in and finding of alternative lifestyles that cannot be commodified by the capitalist system. Although the book offers some hints of what is to be done, it is essentially left up to the reader to discover that individually. Fortunately, in our information-saturated society, this is not too difficult of a task. Thinking outside of the box, however, is.
January 21, 2011
Um, I really liked this book, but was occasionally frustrated by it. For example, "cognitariat". I'm skeptical of the utility of this term to describe most precarious labor in the US. Based on my experiences doing precarious labor in various capacities, most of it would not best be described as cognitive. Making sandwiches or doing data entry is certainly immaterial labor (in the sense that nothing is really produced), but it's mostly a set of rote, memorized tasks. If one voluntarily works overtime at such a job, it's not because one closely identifies with these tasks, it's because there's no prospect of regular hours in the future, so one grabs all the hours that they can when they're available. Bifo acknowledges these things, in asides, but says that what is important is the relationship that the new cognitariat has to their work. But what does that mean? Are web designers and computer programmers the new revolutionary subject?
On the other hand, I think that he does the best job of talking about the affective experience of depression than almost any other philosopher or social theorist I have read. Like, when explaining my own problems, I will no doubt be borrowing terms from Bifo in the future.
On the other hand, I think that he does the best job of talking about the affective experience of depression than almost any other philosopher or social theorist I have read. Like, when explaining my own problems, I will no doubt be borrowing terms from Bifo in the future.
May 3, 2020
Yeni dünya düzeni ne olacak şeklinde salgından sonrasını merak etmekteyken, neden böyle oldu sorusuna dönüp geleceğe ordan baktırıyor bence bu kitap.
İnsan ne zaman yaptığı işle gurur duyar hale geldi, instagram gibi kullanıcılarının çoğu için kişisel olan hesaplarının bio kısmına ne zaman mesleğini yazdıracak kadar kendini mesleğiyle tanımlar oldu? Şimdilik anladığım kadarıyla, 60 ve 70 lerdeki işçi hareketlerinin hızı, entellektüel birikime dayalı üretilen teknolojilerin hızına yetişemediği zaman. İnsan bilişini, düşününü teknolojiyle birleştirip, yaptığı işten elde ettiği son üründe kendi zihinsel emeğinin olduğunu düşündüğü zaman. Artık birçoğumuz masa başında aynı bilgisayarlardan, aynı programlardan, aynı arama motorlarından geçerek çalışıyoruz. Bedensel açıdan baktığımızda benzer şeyler yapıyor olmamıza rağmen, bir akademisyenin veya tasarımcının yaptığı işi bir borsacı yapamıyor, borsacı veya akademisyenin yaptığı işi de tasarımcı yapamıyor. İşler aynı olmasına rağmen bedenler yer değiştiremiyor, çünkü ruhu işe satıldı, yaptığı işin sonucunda kendinden bir parça var artık, bilişsel emeği.
Kitabın baştan sona altı çizili olabilirdi, anlamakta çok zorlandığım yerler oldu, yine de aklımda yer edip zaman içinde kendi kendime 'fark'ına varabileceğimi umduğum için okumakta inat ettim, zaman zaman yeniden okunabilecek bir kitap bu yüzden. Önceki zamanlarda okuduğum Baudrillard ve simülakr düşüncesi kitabın birçok yerinde alıntılanmış, ayrıca benim ilk defa öğrendiğim Deleuze ve Guattari düşünceleri de kitapta tartışılıyor, öncesinde bu yazınları okumuş olsam belki başka anlamlara ulaşabilirdim okuduklarımdan.
Bunlar da altını çizdiğim bazı yerler;
"Çünkü bu çağ görünür olmayan bir mekanda, bir algoritmanın ürünü olan simülakranın yaratılması süreciyle hiçbir şekilde etkileşime girmeyen bir tür alt dünyada dehşet ve acı üretir.
İnsanlar arasındaki ilişkilerin rasyonelliğini tesis etmeyi önermiş olan devrimci ya da demokratik politika, modern tarih içinde nereye varacağını bilemez, kendini bir yol ayrımında bulur: bir yanda savaş, faşizm ve çılgın kimlik talepleri, öbür yanda buz gibi bir birbirinin aynısı olma hali ve kimliklerin teknolojik tekrarı."
"İnsan terminaller bilgisayarlarının başında aynı fiziksel hareketleri yaparlar, hepsi iletişimin evrensel makinesine bağlıdır; ancak yaptıkları iş fiziksel olarak basitleştikçe bilgilerinin, becerilerinin, performanslarının değiş tokuş edilebilmesi güçlesir. Dijital iş mutlak soyut işaretleri manipüle eder, fakat iş kişiselleştikçe, yani değiş tokuş edilmesi giderek daha zor hal aldıkça, işin yeniden birleştirme işlevi daha özgül hale gelir. Sonuç olarak high tech işlerde çalışanlar emeği, hayatlarının en esaslı, en özgül, en şahsileşmiş parçası görme eğilimindedirler."
"Yaşlılık artık yaşlı insanların toplum nezdinde değerli bir bilgi kaynağı addedildiği geçmiş zamanlardaki gibi marjinal ve az rastlanan bir fenomen değil. Yaşlılık, gelecek karanlık ve korkutucu bir boyut haline geldiğinden beri, zarlarını geleceğe oynayacak cesareti kalmamış bir insanlığın çoğunluğu için genel durum haline geldi."
"Dünya duyguların aheste zamanı uyarınca işlenmek için ziyadesiyle hızlı bir hale geldikçe ve entropi beyin hücrelerini tahakküm altına aldıkça libidinal enerjiler de azalıyor."
İnsan ne zaman yaptığı işle gurur duyar hale geldi, instagram gibi kullanıcılarının çoğu için kişisel olan hesaplarının bio kısmına ne zaman mesleğini yazdıracak kadar kendini mesleğiyle tanımlar oldu? Şimdilik anladığım kadarıyla, 60 ve 70 lerdeki işçi hareketlerinin hızı, entellektüel birikime dayalı üretilen teknolojilerin hızına yetişemediği zaman. İnsan bilişini, düşününü teknolojiyle birleştirip, yaptığı işten elde ettiği son üründe kendi zihinsel emeğinin olduğunu düşündüğü zaman. Artık birçoğumuz masa başında aynı bilgisayarlardan, aynı programlardan, aynı arama motorlarından geçerek çalışıyoruz. Bedensel açıdan baktığımızda benzer şeyler yapıyor olmamıza rağmen, bir akademisyenin veya tasarımcının yaptığı işi bir borsacı yapamıyor, borsacı veya akademisyenin yaptığı işi de tasarımcı yapamıyor. İşler aynı olmasına rağmen bedenler yer değiştiremiyor, çünkü ruhu işe satıldı, yaptığı işin sonucunda kendinden bir parça var artık, bilişsel emeği.
Kitabın baştan sona altı çizili olabilirdi, anlamakta çok zorlandığım yerler oldu, yine de aklımda yer edip zaman içinde kendi kendime 'fark'ına varabileceğimi umduğum için okumakta inat ettim, zaman zaman yeniden okunabilecek bir kitap bu yüzden. Önceki zamanlarda okuduğum Baudrillard ve simülakr düşüncesi kitabın birçok yerinde alıntılanmış, ayrıca benim ilk defa öğrendiğim Deleuze ve Guattari düşünceleri de kitapta tartışılıyor, öncesinde bu yazınları okumuş olsam belki başka anlamlara ulaşabilirdim okuduklarımdan.
Bunlar da altını çizdiğim bazı yerler;
"Çünkü bu çağ görünür olmayan bir mekanda, bir algoritmanın ürünü olan simülakranın yaratılması süreciyle hiçbir şekilde etkileşime girmeyen bir tür alt dünyada dehşet ve acı üretir.
İnsanlar arasındaki ilişkilerin rasyonelliğini tesis etmeyi önermiş olan devrimci ya da demokratik politika, modern tarih içinde nereye varacağını bilemez, kendini bir yol ayrımında bulur: bir yanda savaş, faşizm ve çılgın kimlik talepleri, öbür yanda buz gibi bir birbirinin aynısı olma hali ve kimliklerin teknolojik tekrarı."
"İnsan terminaller bilgisayarlarının başında aynı fiziksel hareketleri yaparlar, hepsi iletişimin evrensel makinesine bağlıdır; ancak yaptıkları iş fiziksel olarak basitleştikçe bilgilerinin, becerilerinin, performanslarının değiş tokuş edilebilmesi güçlesir. Dijital iş mutlak soyut işaretleri manipüle eder, fakat iş kişiselleştikçe, yani değiş tokuş edilmesi giderek daha zor hal aldıkça, işin yeniden birleştirme işlevi daha özgül hale gelir. Sonuç olarak high tech işlerde çalışanlar emeği, hayatlarının en esaslı, en özgül, en şahsileşmiş parçası görme eğilimindedirler."
"Yaşlılık artık yaşlı insanların toplum nezdinde değerli bir bilgi kaynağı addedildiği geçmiş zamanlardaki gibi marjinal ve az rastlanan bir fenomen değil. Yaşlılık, gelecek karanlık ve korkutucu bir boyut haline geldiğinden beri, zarlarını geleceğe oynayacak cesareti kalmamış bir insanlığın çoğunluğu için genel durum haline geldi."
"Dünya duyguların aheste zamanı uyarınca işlenmek için ziyadesiyle hızlı bir hale geldikçe ve entropi beyin hücrelerini tahakküm altına aldıkça libidinal enerjiler de azalıyor."
September 8, 2020
Some shining passages.
"Our desiring energy is trapped in the trick of self-enterprise, our libidinal investments are regulated according to economic rules, our attention is captured in the precariousness of virtual networks: every fragment of mental activity must be transformed into capital. "
"Our desiring energy is trapped in the trick of self-enterprise, our libidinal investments are regulated according to economic rules, our attention is captured in the precariousness of virtual networks: every fragment of mental activity must be transformed into capital. "
January 28, 2015
This book is beautiful, a manifesto towards a new way of existing beyond the confines of an economic/cultural system that has transformed our bodies and our souls. Yes, yes, yes!
October 23, 2025
Finally finished reading this book after putting it off for a bit to pursue some Deleuze and Guattari. Only to then realize that Bifo is also obsessed with Deleuze and Guattari, except he is much easier to read and his method of communication is much more on the nose than D&G, probably at the expense of some of the more dense philosophical material. But what's important to remember is that this book is primarily political and therapeutic if you will, its intention is to push the mind to find new ways of autonomously organizing anti-capitalist spaces in a world marked by depression and endless cycles of destruction.
Reading this brings me a lot of hope, even if it was written over 15 years ago because in many ways the situation has only gotten worse and the need for an escape has gotten even stronger. It also makes me reflect on the various ways I've tried to make my own lines of escape, my own anti-capitalist network of support and my own community, possibly not in the most effective way but any way is enough given the circumstances.
There are many things to take away from this book, and I think they're all equally as important and most of them begin with a revolution in the mind and the ways we are used to thinking which are slowly killing us from the inside. We must move beyond defining our self-worth and our identity through our workplace, that is really the only way we can begin redefining this idea of 'wealth' not as material possessions but as enjoyment. It is obviously easier said than done don't get me wrong, but I refuse to believe it is impossible. Everyone has the opportunity to create new connections at some point in their day, we are simply taught not to and our spaces are built to stop us from achieving that. But at the end of the day people are human, and humans need to create, humans need hobbies and friends, people who will stand by them and protect them when things get tough. Your pile of money stored under the mattress isn't going to save you when the economy collapses but your community will do everything in its power to not let go of you. Put yourself out there, go to the local library and make small talk at the café, join groups or organisations that you look up to whether it be political parties or NGOs or soup kitchens (possibly not investment banking related ones), go for a walk every once in a while and have an interaction with a stranger, say good morning to old people waiting at the bus stop in the morning. Don't use the drugs they give you to keep you artificially happy but make your own happiness, to be clear I'm not telling people not to use approved pharmaceuticals but for the love of God don't just take them and think all your problems will be solved, they are to be used as appendages to help you not solutions in themselves.
I've gone on a bit of a rant that has less to do with the book itself and more to do with how the book made me feel, the way it made me rethink many of my daily actions and behaviours that maybe only serve to make my life more miserable and my soul more isolated. The last thing I'll say is this: we seem to have a conception of therapy as something which can only happen with a professional in an office with the psychoanalyst on his chair listening to all your problems, that is not the case. Our task as activists and theorists is to allow that meaning to expand and break through the windows of the psychoanalyst's office and into the streets and communities around us. Therapy is connection, it is friendship as Deleuze and Guattari would say, it is going out and protesting and it is also making small talk with random people. Don't let established definitions of true and false, dichotomies established by a perverted western metaphysical tradition of dualities, don't let them limit your possibilities and your potential.
Bifo wants us to see what lies beyond the barbed wire of eternal capitalist growth, not the apocalypse but the possibility for something new and beautiful that we can and must build together. As an old man himself he wants us to have hope for a future he may never see instead of crying about a present that seeks to destroy us from the inside. Thank you Bifo for being an inspiration and for the contributions you have made to not only mine but so many other people's lives.
Reading this brings me a lot of hope, even if it was written over 15 years ago because in many ways the situation has only gotten worse and the need for an escape has gotten even stronger. It also makes me reflect on the various ways I've tried to make my own lines of escape, my own anti-capitalist network of support and my own community, possibly not in the most effective way but any way is enough given the circumstances.
There are many things to take away from this book, and I think they're all equally as important and most of them begin with a revolution in the mind and the ways we are used to thinking which are slowly killing us from the inside. We must move beyond defining our self-worth and our identity through our workplace, that is really the only way we can begin redefining this idea of 'wealth' not as material possessions but as enjoyment. It is obviously easier said than done don't get me wrong, but I refuse to believe it is impossible. Everyone has the opportunity to create new connections at some point in their day, we are simply taught not to and our spaces are built to stop us from achieving that. But at the end of the day people are human, and humans need to create, humans need hobbies and friends, people who will stand by them and protect them when things get tough. Your pile of money stored under the mattress isn't going to save you when the economy collapses but your community will do everything in its power to not let go of you. Put yourself out there, go to the local library and make small talk at the café, join groups or organisations that you look up to whether it be political parties or NGOs or soup kitchens (possibly not investment banking related ones), go for a walk every once in a while and have an interaction with a stranger, say good morning to old people waiting at the bus stop in the morning. Don't use the drugs they give you to keep you artificially happy but make your own happiness, to be clear I'm not telling people not to use approved pharmaceuticals but for the love of God don't just take them and think all your problems will be solved, they are to be used as appendages to help you not solutions in themselves.
I've gone on a bit of a rant that has less to do with the book itself and more to do with how the book made me feel, the way it made me rethink many of my daily actions and behaviours that maybe only serve to make my life more miserable and my soul more isolated. The last thing I'll say is this: we seem to have a conception of therapy as something which can only happen with a professional in an office with the psychoanalyst on his chair listening to all your problems, that is not the case. Our task as activists and theorists is to allow that meaning to expand and break through the windows of the psychoanalyst's office and into the streets and communities around us. Therapy is connection, it is friendship as Deleuze and Guattari would say, it is going out and protesting and it is also making small talk with random people. Don't let established definitions of true and false, dichotomies established by a perverted western metaphysical tradition of dualities, don't let them limit your possibilities and your potential.
Bifo wants us to see what lies beyond the barbed wire of eternal capitalist growth, not the apocalypse but the possibility for something new and beautiful that we can and must build together. As an old man himself he wants us to have hope for a future he may never see instead of crying about a present that seeks to destroy us from the inside. Thank you Bifo for being an inspiration and for the contributions you have made to not only mine but so many other people's lives.
July 24, 2015
"Perhaps the answer is that it is necessary to slow down, finally giving up on economistic fanaticism and collectively rethink the true meaning of the word “wealth.” Wealth does not mean a person who owns a lot, but refers to someone who has enough time to enjoy what nature and human collaboration place within everyone’s reach. If the great majority of people could understand this basic notion, if they could be liberated from the competitive illusion that is impoverishing everyone’s life, the very foundations of capitalism, would start to crumble." (p. 169)
May 17, 2020
الكتاب مهم ﻷي حد عايز يفهم طبيعة العمل دلوقتي
خاتمة الكتاب مانيفستو للأيام اللي عايشينها دلوقتي
خاتمة الكتاب مانيفستو للأيام اللي عايشينها دلوقتي
October 20, 2020
Mülk biriktirmek marifetiyle varılması gereken bir doruk olduğuna inandırıldığımız “zenginlik” kavramı üzerine yeniden düşünmeye cesareti olanları; neoliberal dünyanın öğrettiği rekabet güdüsüyle içine çekildiğimiz panik hâli ve depresyonla yüzleşmeye cesareti olanları; gelir ile iş performansı, iş sevgisi ile para, para ile mutluluk arasında pozitif korelasyon olduğuna dair dogmaları baştan savmaya cesareti olanları; kısacası, cesareti olanları okuyup anlamaya davet ettiğim, sürükleyici değil, silkeleyici ve ağır bir kitap.
May 17, 2018
Berardi's book is a welcome compliment to other works which deal with a similar problem from other perspectives, such as one work which he directly borrows from in the work - Alain Ehrenberg's La fatigue d'être soi. It wrestles with the plague of depression in heavily-industrialized economies which depend increasingly on cognitive labour, the domain of Berardi's conception of a 'cognitariat'. He touches on a particularly salient point - that happiness is not a matter of science so much as ideology (Whilst science is often ideological, we, and he, need not address this here). A factor which puts at odds the medication and popular analysis of the problem of depression, one which is now largely the domain of the field of psychopharmacology - whether applied by 'professionals' or the self. Berardi's cognitariat inhabits the world as described by Baudrillard and Lipovetsky; the world in which information is almost entirely ubiquitous, yet, there is rarely ever meaning attached therein. Instead, information is information at it's base; the transfer of signs relating to a thing. Informationalization and intellectualization of labour has left the cognitariat to wrest with an infinite and accelerating torrent of the symbolic, the emptiness produced in this process being propped up by what Berardi calls the "prozac-economy".
Berardi admirably and insightfully describes the processes at work in the intellectual economy, and the issues which arise from this. The solution, which stands opposite to others currently in vogue (Berardi reads almost as a proponent of degrowth when compared to, say, Accelerationist theorists), is rather apparent - the building of a system which is not one reliant on ever-increasing competition and pressures. Berardi has accurately described alienation, yet, it is rather unsatisfying in how he proposes to journey to autonomy - though it should be noted that there is no dearth of authors one could consult for this.
Berardi admirably and insightfully describes the processes at work in the intellectual economy, and the issues which arise from this. The solution, which stands opposite to others currently in vogue (Berardi reads almost as a proponent of degrowth when compared to, say, Accelerationist theorists), is rather apparent - the building of a system which is not one reliant on ever-increasing competition and pressures. Berardi has accurately described alienation, yet, it is rather unsatisfying in how he proposes to journey to autonomy - though it should be noted that there is no dearth of authors one could consult for this.
August 23, 2018
Berardi's book is very approachable if one wants to apply the lessons of Deleuze & Guattari, Foucualt, and Baudrillard to the present. I also, like with Willing Slaves of Capital: Spinoza and Marx on Desire by Frédéric Lordon, enjoyed reading a re-interpretation of the concept of alienation.
Berardi's main project however is to rethink economy, or economic crisis to be specific, from a schizoanalytical perspective. While it might certainly succeed in making the reader consider these aspects in new ways, I wouldn't call this theory well-developed. Foremost because Berardi's critique of economics tends towards a populist narrative than a consistent (Marxist or otherwise) critical analysis.
Edit [swe]: En kommentar för svenska läsare av "Den arbetande själen". Det är som alltid väldigt tacksamt att Tankekraft existerar, ett förlag som översätter de mest spännande teoretikerna i vår samtid, och de verk som borde översätts för länge sedan. Tyvärr så lider denna bok (om än inte till lika stor del som exempelvis Anti-Oedipus) av Tankekrafts bristande redaktörskap: här och var märks stavfel och udda formuleringar, vilket såklart är tråkigt.
Berardi's main project however is to rethink economy, or economic crisis to be specific, from a schizoanalytical perspective. While it might certainly succeed in making the reader consider these aspects in new ways, I wouldn't call this theory well-developed. Foremost because Berardi's critique of economics tends towards a populist narrative than a consistent (Marxist or otherwise) critical analysis.
Edit [swe]: En kommentar för svenska läsare av "Den arbetande själen". Det är som alltid väldigt tacksamt att Tankekraft existerar, ett förlag som översätter de mest spännande teoretikerna i vår samtid, och de verk som borde översätts för länge sedan. Tyvärr så lider denna bok (om än inte till lika stor del som exempelvis Anti-Oedipus) av Tankekrafts bristande redaktörskap: här och var märks stavfel och udda formuleringar, vilket såklart är tråkigt.
February 10, 2015
This book is more of a historiography than a direct historical account of the shift from a proletariat economy to a 'cognetariat' one.
I am only recently familiar with Deleuze and Guattari's work, but Berardi's choice to adopt their meaning of 'desire' (i.e. as a field rather than a force) seems to advance a term that might otherwise be read as a possessive will-to-power.
However, being much more convinced by Baudrillard's arguments about desire's role in perpetuating ever new objects, I don't see how Berardi's "The Soul at Work" provides any viable alternative to neo-liberal 'semiotic inflation'.
"The Soul at Work" gives Baudrillard his due, which is a rare occurrence in contemporary academia, and I am happy that Berardi is able to recognize the relevance of Baudrillardian notions like 'simulation' to current cultural criticism. I guess I am just left feeling skeptical whether or not Deleuze and Guattari's refrains are able to resist Semio-Capital. Although, an inviting and voluptuous refrain might bring the possibility for the occassioning of an event, or Baudrillard's symbolic.
I am only recently familiar with Deleuze and Guattari's work, but Berardi's choice to adopt their meaning of 'desire' (i.e. as a field rather than a force) seems to advance a term that might otherwise be read as a possessive will-to-power.
However, being much more convinced by Baudrillard's arguments about desire's role in perpetuating ever new objects, I don't see how Berardi's "The Soul at Work" provides any viable alternative to neo-liberal 'semiotic inflation'.
"The Soul at Work" gives Baudrillard his due, which is a rare occurrence in contemporary academia, and I am happy that Berardi is able to recognize the relevance of Baudrillardian notions like 'simulation' to current cultural criticism. I guess I am just left feeling skeptical whether or not Deleuze and Guattari's refrains are able to resist Semio-Capital. Although, an inviting and voluptuous refrain might bring the possibility for the occassioning of an event, or Baudrillard's symbolic.
May 11, 2013
This book is amazing and often completely overlooked. It has a quirky way of locating the origins of Autonomous Marxism-- part of which is rather insightful and part of which that just seems downright cranky. This book is very revealing in the links between Workerism, May '68, and post-structural theory.
November 17, 2011
The best book I have read in years, explains our past, present and future. My New bible.
May 12, 2017
It has been quite some time since I last read this work, and my copy is either packed up or loaned out to someone, so I am working strictly from memory. At my first reading I do recall being struck by the analysis of labour relations in the digital age, and the vanishing of the space and time necessary for the elaboration of what it means to be human. Semiocapitalism is, I believe, Bifo's coinage, and it raises the question of how the capture of meaning - of everything that we might mean by the soul - by the forces of globalized capitalism on demand might be affecting the mental capacities and dispositions of people. Particularly acute is the lament for the loss of attention. Bifo writes:
"We can reach every point in the world but, more importantly, we can be reached from any point in the world. Privacy and its possibilities are abolished. Attention is under siege everywhere. Not silence but uninterrupted noise, not the red desert, but a cognitive space overcharged with nervous incentives to act: this is the alienation of our times..."
The work itself is a creative and poetic reworking of Marxist analysis, in particular the Italian tradition of Operaismo. It is not easy reading, but the ideas are rewarding. Bifo has a gift for making his concepts come alive and, though he does draw on the work of other social theorists - most notably Felix Guattari - I did not get the sense that he was simply taking over previously elaborated concepts wholesale and simply assuming that his reader was familiar with his usage of a particular neologism. This has been my experience in reading some other theorists within the Italian Workerist tradition - who shall go unnamed for the time being.
It is, I think, important to keep in mind that Bifo's work deals primarily with the plight of cognitive labour, and tends to assume a little too blithely that the real dangers and oppressions of industrial, physically draining labour have entirely passed. The equation of debt with slavery, for example, can make us attentive to the historical and contemporary relationship between indebted or indentured labour, but we should also be aware that many contemporary conditions of slavery -prostitution, coltan mining etc. - do actually involve the degradation and exhaustion of the physical body.
Nevertheless, Bifo's work does important work in looking at the effects of digital technology on labour relations, psychological well-being, and offers a tentative exploration into the conditions necessary to work towards autonomy.
"We can reach every point in the world but, more importantly, we can be reached from any point in the world. Privacy and its possibilities are abolished. Attention is under siege everywhere. Not silence but uninterrupted noise, not the red desert, but a cognitive space overcharged with nervous incentives to act: this is the alienation of our times..."
The work itself is a creative and poetic reworking of Marxist analysis, in particular the Italian tradition of Operaismo. It is not easy reading, but the ideas are rewarding. Bifo has a gift for making his concepts come alive and, though he does draw on the work of other social theorists - most notably Felix Guattari - I did not get the sense that he was simply taking over previously elaborated concepts wholesale and simply assuming that his reader was familiar with his usage of a particular neologism. This has been my experience in reading some other theorists within the Italian Workerist tradition - who shall go unnamed for the time being.
It is, I think, important to keep in mind that Bifo's work deals primarily with the plight of cognitive labour, and tends to assume a little too blithely that the real dangers and oppressions of industrial, physically draining labour have entirely passed. The equation of debt with slavery, for example, can make us attentive to the historical and contemporary relationship between indebted or indentured labour, but we should also be aware that many contemporary conditions of slavery -prostitution, coltan mining etc. - do actually involve the degradation and exhaustion of the physical body.
Nevertheless, Bifo's work does important work in looking at the effects of digital technology on labour relations, psychological well-being, and offers a tentative exploration into the conditions necessary to work towards autonomy.
July 29, 2025
At the local electronics store a few months back I met what turned out a 18-year old sales associate at a grocery store.
I was looking for a vinyl record for my wife's 55th birthday.
Jazz of course.
The "kid" was browsing the Hard Rock bargain bin section and I looked over his shoulder to remark: "Wow Saxon, they were my fave!"
He turned out to be an expert on 80s Metal and started talking. I asked him what he did for a living and he said he worked in this grocery store, pushing items over a scanner for 8 hours a day, sometimes stocking shelves.
In Germany this is considered an apprentice ship as "Einzelhandelskaufmann".
In Marxism we call this "Being a Fucking Extension of the MACHINE" (BFM for short, I just came up with that).
I asked how he likes his job. He answered: "I had no idea how SOUL CRUSHING this would be!"
I wish I had read this book back then to recommend it to him but then again: while it is an incredibly important analysis of what WILL KILL or IS KILLING our humanity, it is also very dense.
This is not a criticism: the alternating between very accessible common sense illuminations of what we all have to face in modern capitalism and the densely packed references to other Marxist writers I think is perfect and suits the overall argument Berardi puts forward.
Interesting of course: this book came out in 2009, the financial crises loomed large and is most certainly referenced, albeit often implicitly.
When you read this today, post Covid, in the midst of the AI hype? Depressing because it got so much worse and it will get way worse than it is now.
Silver lining? The pushback against AI in labor, art and even commerce.
RESIST FOLKS! RESIST! SAVE YOUR SOUL!
(And the sould of your neighbor and / or random passerby on the street)
I was looking for a vinyl record for my wife's 55th birthday.
Jazz of course.
The "kid" was browsing the Hard Rock bargain bin section and I looked over his shoulder to remark: "Wow Saxon, they were my fave!"
He turned out to be an expert on 80s Metal and started talking. I asked him what he did for a living and he said he worked in this grocery store, pushing items over a scanner for 8 hours a day, sometimes stocking shelves.
In Germany this is considered an apprentice ship as "Einzelhandelskaufmann".
In Marxism we call this "Being a Fucking Extension of the MACHINE" (BFM for short, I just came up with that).
I asked how he likes his job. He answered: "I had no idea how SOUL CRUSHING this would be!"
I wish I had read this book back then to recommend it to him but then again: while it is an incredibly important analysis of what WILL KILL or IS KILLING our humanity, it is also very dense.
This is not a criticism: the alternating between very accessible common sense illuminations of what we all have to face in modern capitalism and the densely packed references to other Marxist writers I think is perfect and suits the overall argument Berardi puts forward.
Interesting of course: this book came out in 2009, the financial crises loomed large and is most certainly referenced, albeit often implicitly.
When you read this today, post Covid, in the midst of the AI hype? Depressing because it got so much worse and it will get way worse than it is now.
Silver lining? The pushback against AI in labor, art and even commerce.
RESIST FOLKS! RESIST! SAVE YOUR SOUL!
(And the sould of your neighbor and / or random passerby on the street)
May 19, 2022
3.5 stars
I found the book packed with many insightful moments, but for a text that was about exploring digital technology and cyberculture, it seemed more rooted in the philosophical-political debates of the 1970s with an emphasis on Foucault, Baudrillard, Deluz, and Guattari. Rather than polling examples of neoliberal exploitation through surveillance and newer cybertechnologies, much of Berardi's book will cite films from the 60s and 70s and meditate on its symbolic meaning through a french post-modern philosopher of that era.
Also, The book's description states that 'The Soul at Work is a clarion call for a new collective effort to reclaim happiness,' despite this statement there is very little in the way of grounded discussion on emacitpatory resistance from the problems he lays out in the book.
This book has many poignant moments but is a text that was published in 2009 that reads as if it was a really good book written by Jean Baudrillard forty years ago.
I found the book packed with many insightful moments, but for a text that was about exploring digital technology and cyberculture, it seemed more rooted in the philosophical-political debates of the 1970s with an emphasis on Foucault, Baudrillard, Deluz, and Guattari. Rather than polling examples of neoliberal exploitation through surveillance and newer cybertechnologies, much of Berardi's book will cite films from the 60s and 70s and meditate on its symbolic meaning through a french post-modern philosopher of that era.
Also, The book's description states that 'The Soul at Work is a clarion call for a new collective effort to reclaim happiness,' despite this statement there is very little in the way of grounded discussion on emacitpatory resistance from the problems he lays out in the book.
This book has many poignant moments but is a text that was published in 2009 that reads as if it was a really good book written by Jean Baudrillard forty years ago.
October 9, 2021
semiotics/schizoanalysis noob but this was an incredibly rewarding read for a bunch of different reasons. easily the densest thing i’ve ever laid eyes on so i won’t even try to give an actual review on the literature but the chapter on autonomic post humanism processes overcrowding the soul to the point of precariousness — wow, just beautifully addressed. maybe i should’ve started with some more foundational primers to left poli theory than jumping head first into this but i think it’ll be something i look back fondly on when i’m older and still as disaffected. :)
on deserting the field of communication:
‘nothing is more distressing than a thought that escapes itself, than ideas that fly off, that disappear hardly formed, already eroded by forgetfulness or precipitated into others that we no longer master’
on deserting the field of communication:
‘nothing is more distressing than a thought that escapes itself, than ideas that fly off, that disappear hardly formed, already eroded by forgetfulness or precipitated into others that we no longer master’
October 25, 2019
I agree with the overall premise of the book, but I find his treatment of depression to be a little bit too light of the actual fields of psychology and it really tries hard to root it in Marxist theory and that part falls short. There are times where the book gets too caught up in media analysis, but I love that it uses media analysis to examine the world - analysis of analysis so to speak.
Decent read, at times brilliantly written, at other times obfuscated.
Decent read, at times brilliantly written, at other times obfuscated.
December 31, 2022
‘No desire, no vitality seems to exist anymore outside the economic enterprise, outside productive labour and business’ (p. 96).
Bifo aims to explain that refusal of work in order to valorise human activities that escape from capitalist domination, and estrangement as a possibility for constructing an alternative to labour relations.
Bifo aims to explain that refusal of work in order to valorise human activities that escape from capitalist domination, and estrangement as a possibility for constructing an alternative to labour relations.
January 9, 2025
“Una consecuencia de esta pérdida de erotización de la vida cotidiana es la inversión de deseo en el trabajo, entendido como el único lugar de validación narcisista para una individualidad acostumbrada a concebir al otro según las reglas de la competición, esto es, como un peligro, un empobrecimiento, una limitación, más que como una experiencia, placer, enriquecimiento”.
January 8, 2019
interesting analysis of work and life in contemporary capitalism. Although some of the comments made about contemporary work-relations and environments lack some empirical grounding and I am pretty skeptical of Berardi's prescribed solutions.
June 29, 2018
I would like to write a lot about this book and how insightful it was, but unfortunately I have no time for now. Bottom-line, it is highly recommended!
March 9, 2020
we need better ways of helping/holding onto people
December 11, 2020
I loved the Book from start to finish explaining everything you need to know about alienation post fordism semiocapitalism and etc.
I recommend this book for anyone on the far left.
I recommend this book for anyone on the far left.
March 21, 2022
Beradri does such a great job explaining the theorists he’s writing about.
August 2, 2016
What has happened to our soul in late capitalism? How has worked changed in the last hundred years? How has our perceptive capability been altered by the changes in production? Big questions and great answers in this book.
The postmodern domination of capitalism is founded on the refrain of wealth, understood as cumulative possession. A specific idea of wealth took control of the collective mind which values accumulation and the constant postponing of pleasurable enjoyment. But this idea of wealth (specific to the sad science of economics) transforms life into lack, need and dependence. To this idea of wealth we need to oppose another idea: wealth as time--time to enjoy, travel, learn and make love. 141
The anti-capitalist movement of the future won’t be a movement of the poor, but of the wealthy. The real wealthy of the future will be those who will succeed in creating forms of autonomous consumption, mental models of need reduction, habitat models for the sharing of indispensable resources. This requires the creation of dissipative wealth refrains, or of frugal and ascetic wealth…. 142
The virtually infinite multiplication of the object of desire is the essential character of the pathologies of our times. It is no longer the absence, or repression, or the prohibition of touching the object. The Other proliferates as an unreachable and unlimited object of consumption, as the virtual substitute of a no longer possible errotic alterity. The other becomes pornography, since it is always subtracted to enjoyment as it becomes the object of an infinite desire that exhausts the limited libidinal energy of real human beings. 172
The postmodern domination of capitalism is founded on the refrain of wealth, understood as cumulative possession. A specific idea of wealth took control of the collective mind which values accumulation and the constant postponing of pleasurable enjoyment. But this idea of wealth (specific to the sad science of economics) transforms life into lack, need and dependence. To this idea of wealth we need to oppose another idea: wealth as time--time to enjoy, travel, learn and make love. 141
The anti-capitalist movement of the future won’t be a movement of the poor, but of the wealthy. The real wealthy of the future will be those who will succeed in creating forms of autonomous consumption, mental models of need reduction, habitat models for the sharing of indispensable resources. This requires the creation of dissipative wealth refrains, or of frugal and ascetic wealth…. 142
The virtually infinite multiplication of the object of desire is the essential character of the pathologies of our times. It is no longer the absence, or repression, or the prohibition of touching the object. The Other proliferates as an unreachable and unlimited object of consumption, as the virtual substitute of a no longer possible errotic alterity. The other becomes pornography, since it is always subtracted to enjoyment as it becomes the object of an infinite desire that exhausts the limited libidinal energy of real human beings. 172
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews