Dissertation (MHSc--Health Science) -- AUT University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references. Also held in print (66 leaves ; 30 cm.) in Archive at City Campus (T 152.4 FEN)

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Tulsa, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 60-69).

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Orientador: José Sterza Justo / Banca: Luís Guilherme Coelho Buchianeri / Banca: Daniele de Andrade Ferrazza / Resumo: A contemporaneidade constitui-se como sendo o tempo atual no qual mudanças importantes e outras ainda em curso estão dando feições ao mundo, diferentes daquelas consagradas pela modernidade, seja pela intensificação e radicalização do processo de modernização ou pela eclosão de novos processos, dentre eles, inclusive, aqueles que foram situados como próprios da pós-modernidade. Esta se caracteriza, segundo Harvey (1998), pela incorporação e aceitação do efêmero e do provisório, tornando mundanas as imagens de aceleração, instabilidade, precariedade, metamorfose, fragmentação e outras que compõem a condição humana na atualidade. Nesse cenário da solidão, da indiferença e do vazio produzido pela velocidade, pelo distanciamento do outro e pela brandura das vinculações e relacionamentos destacam-se duas formas de subjetivação: a depressão e o tédio. A primeira tem forte presença nos dias atuais, porém esta pesquisa destacou o tédio como a subjetivação típica do contemporâneo pela sua íntima ligação com o tempo, especialmente, como expressão de uma tentativa de desaceleração do tempo ou de protesto contra o excesso e um ritmo de vida vertiginoso. O tédio caracteriza-se pelo cansaço de viver, uma despotencialização da vida. O objetivo principal e central da presente pesquisa foi identificar e analisar as expressões do tédio na cultura, tomando como corpus letras de músicas, do repertório Rock Nacional, da década de 80, que versem sobre o tédio. As produções artístico-culturais são consideradas um caminho seguro para se captar as subjetivações emergentes num dado tempo e lugar, visto que elas funcionam como expressão - como manifestação simbólica - da experiência humana ou da realidade vivida. Estas produções culturais foram tratadas mediante uma Análise de Conteúdo, na linha proposta por Bardin (2002). Tal método é bastante apropriado para a ... / Abstract: Contemporaneity consists of the current time in which important changes and ongoing influences give the world new forms different from those canonized by the modernity due either to the intensification or radicalization of the modernization process or to the appearance of new process, among which those processes categorized as related to the postmodernity are also found. As per Harvey (1998), postmodernity is characterized by the association and acceptance of ephemeral things and temporary things, making the ideas of acceleration, instability, precariousness, metamorphosis, fragmentation futile, as well as other ideas that compose the human condition in the current time. In this scenario of loneliness, indifference and emptiness caused by velocity, distance from the other, and weakness of relationships, two forms of subjeticvation are highlighted: depression and boredom. The first one is largely found in the current times. However this research has pointed out boredom as a subjectivation typical of the contemporaneity due to its close relation with time, particularly as the expression of an attempt of time deceleration or protest against excessive things and a vertiginous lifestyle. Boredom is characterized by tiredness of living, depotentiation of life. The main purpose of this paper was to identify and analyze expressions of boredom in Brazilian culture, and its corpus consists of lyrics from Brazilian rock in the 80s that deal with boredom. Artistic and cultural productions are considered a safe way for capturing subjectivations emerging in a given time and space, since they act out as expression - symbolic manifestation - of human experience or the experienced reality. These cultural productions were addressed through content analysis, as per Bardin (2002). This method is quite proper for textual analysis, and it induces a systematic treatment of texts which allows the extraction of significat ... / Mestre

Essay.

Few sociologists have addressed the concept of boredom despite interest in the subject and experience of boredom from psychology, philosophy, the arts and popular culture. Classical sociological concepts of alienation, anomie and disenchantment are related to boredom, but do not address it directly. The history of the word boredom itself is not clear, though it appears it was first used in the late 19th century. Most authors agree that an increase in individualism and the concomitant rise in secularization, combined with industrial changes in labour and increased bureaucracy, help to explain a perceived increase in the experience of boredom. This dissertation is a phenomenological exploration of boredom, informed by the writings of Martin Heidegger and Walter Benjamin on the subject. Inspired by Benjamin’s method of literary montage, from his monumental Passagenwerk, I construct a cultural collage of the subject of boredom. I use the metaphor of storeys (the levels of a building) as an organizing device to construct the empirical work of this project. These storeys include a consideration and analysis of: billboards, internet advertising, the reflections of an overseas development worker, art installations, a poem, a greeting card, a play, song lyrics and Kafka’s short story character, the hunger artist. Each storey serves to inspire a sociological meditation on the subject of boredom, all of which are grounded in the historical, social and philosophical reviews in the first four chapters. These extensive reviews, as well as the eleven storeys, contribute a preliminary sociological analysis of the ambiguous yet ubiquitous experience of boredom in modernity.

Few sociologists have addressed the concept of boredom despite interest in the subject and experience of boredom from psychology, philosophy, the arts and popular culture. Classical sociological concepts of alienation, anomie and disenchantment are related to boredom, but do not address it directly. The history of the word boredom itself is not clear, though it appears it was first used in the late 19th century. Most authors agree that an increase in individualism and the concomitant rise in secularization, combined with industrial changes in labour and increased bureaucracy, help to explain a perceived increase in the experience of boredom. This dissertation is a phenomenological exploration of boredom, informed by the writings of Martin Heidegger and Walter Benjamin on the subject. Inspired by Benjamin’s method of literary montage, from his monumental Passagenwerk, I construct a cultural collage of the subject of boredom. I use the metaphor of storeys (the levels of a building) as an organizing device to construct the empirical work of this project. These storeys include a consideration and analysis of: billboards, internet advertising, the reflections of an overseas development worker, art installations, a poem, a greeting card, a play, song lyrics and Kafka’s short story character, the hunger artist. Each storey serves to inspire a sociological meditation on the subject of boredom, all of which are grounded in the historical, social and philosophical reviews in the first four chapters. These extensive reviews, as well as the eleven storeys, contribute a preliminary sociological analysis of the ambiguous yet ubiquitous experience of boredom in modernity.

This dissertation examines how boredom can be understood in the context of Henri Lefebvre’s (1901-1991) critique of everyday life. Through an integration of the boredom literature, both the fully developed studies as well as fragmentary passages, I argue that Lefebvre’s critique of everyday life adds an important dimension to understanding boredom in modernity. One of the leading strands in boredom studies today argues that boredom is an historically specific experience unique to the rhythms of life imparted with the onset of modernity. Viewed in this light, boredom is a relatively recent phenomenon that can be linked to what Lefebvre calls the ‘double process’ of industrialization and urbanization. Although the mass profusion of boredom has left a seemingly indelible mark on society, it has received relatively little attention in both everyday life and academia. First coined in the middle of the 19th century, boredom is a relatively new word for what today is an all too pervasive experience. Writing throughout most of the 20th century, Lefebvre makes numerous references to boredom, yet, despite claiming that a study of boredom would be a significant contribution to his critique of everyday life, he never developed an in-depth and sustained analysis of this experience. Lefebvre did, however, identify an internal dialectic of mass culture as being an integral component for understanding boredom. It is argued that Lefebvre’s theory of a dialectical process inherent to mass culture is a key for understanding boredom as an historically specific phenomenon. In organizing this dissertation, a constellation of themes are presented in order to articulate this dialectic. After exploring boredom’s relationship to modernity, I then discuss what Lefebvre considers as the verso of modernity, everyday life. Following this, I consider the contradictions of space that give rise to boredom in urban centres and suburban peripheries by critically analyzing both the production of those spaces as well as how they are consumed in everyday life. Finally, I consider the escape from boredom offered in select sounds and images of the culture industry and its opposite, the embrace of boredom in certain 20th century avant-garde art movements. Through a reading of Lefebvre’s critique of everyday life and complementary texts, this interdisciplinary dissertation is a contribution to understanding the mass phenomenon of boredom in modernity.

Boredom is a common human experience, yet little is known about its underlying neural mechanisms. This thesis first set out to investigate the construct of boredom and more closely examined its relationship to phenomenologically similar mood states of depression, apathy and anhedonia. Next, deficits in sustained attention, and novelty seeking were examined in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI), who are characterized by atypically high levels of boredom. Study 1 established that although related to varying degrees to apathy, anhedonia, and depression, boredom is indeed a distinct emotional experience. Furthermore, two boredom proneness subtypes - agitated and apathetic - were identified which varied in their relationships to depression. The relationship between boredom and depression was found to be high only in the agitated boredom prone subtype, which is characterised by a high degree of motivation to engage in meaningful, stimulating activities despite the fact that all attempts to do so fail to satisfy. In Study 2, the relationship between boredom proneness and depression was found to be greater in TBI patients than in healthy controls. Using a behavioral measure of sustained attention (SART; Robertson et al., 1997), Study 3 demonstrated a relationship between boredom proneness and sustained attention in healthy controls, such that RTs were faster and commission errors more prevalent in the agitated boredom prone subtype. No relationship between boredom proneness and sustained attention was found in TBI patients. So while attention and boredom show a clear relationship in the healthy brain, this relationship may be disrupted in TBI patients. Finally, Study 4 demonstrated an association between agitated boredom proneness and a preference for novel stimuli across participant groups. In addition, patients had a poorer ability to discriminate between similar and dissimilar stimuli than controls, which was more evident in the agitated boredom prone group. It may be the case then that agitated boredom prone individuals fail to satisfy their desire to engage in stimulating activities in part because they fail to accurately identify when something is indeed novel. Taken together, these results highlight important distinctions between apathetic and agitated boredom proneness, and the way in which these subtypes relate to depression, attention, and novelty seeking, in brain injured patients and healthy controls. More work is needed to determine the role played by boredom in TBI, particularly as this evolves from acute to chronic stages of the illness. Importantly, identifying boredom as a key element in depressive mood disorders, attention deficits (e.g., attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), and novelty seeking behaviour, facilitates the design and implementation of appropriate intervention strategies. For example, it will become increasingly important to deal with boredom as a significant component of depression. Thus, the work presented here represents a novel and important contribution to the study of boredom in that it brings the field one step closer to understanding and treating the experience. Further investigation with greater numbers of patients is necessary to fully explicate the relationship between boredom and depression, attention, and novelty seeking in TBI.