Compare And Contrast Metropolis And Mental Life By Simmel

Life in the city is often chaotic and fast-paced. It is as quick as a television dinner. Often, people are forgetting the art of appreciation. Things go unnoticed like a pebble under a shoe, like sparkling windows on corporate buildings. Now, people are typically giving more time to their technological devices- which is not necessarily a terrible thing. If anything, it speaks more of an imbalance. There is a wider disconnect in every day social interactions (communications) and public spaces (location). It has been noted by a creator of public spaces, Goldberger, that people are “there but not there”. They have closed themselves off from experiencing what is right in front of them. For example, the average adult spends seven hours on a technological

He describes the place full of “fine people and gay colours” (471) and “unimaginable splendour” (472) in comparison to the “cracked”, “dripping” and “grimy” house of his. Later, the story moves to New York, where he is able to experience all the luxuries he had dreamt of; “frock coat and dress clothes”, “silver mounted brushes” (480), “white linen” and “many-coloured wine glasses” (483). While the description Carnegie Hall presents a lavish fantasy world, New York is where everything that Paul had ever desired was reality. By moving to New York, Paul banishes his ‘dream’ at Carnegie, his real identity at Cornelia Street and steps into a fake-reality that truly expresses the insanity of bi-polarity.

Urban studies aims to develop an understanding the modern city metropolis. As Savage et al. have pointed out, the urban encompasses far more than just the physical city itself; understanding the city help us to understand many aspects of modern life (2003, pp.4). Many of its features, such as mass media and public transport systems have spread throughout society over the past century. Sociological studies of urban life began with the landmark publication of 'The City' in 1925 by sociologists Robert Park, Ernest Burgess and Louis Wirth from the University of Chicago, students of Georg Simmel who shared his belief that the urban environment changed man's

People are influenced by their surroundings; people from the city tend to accomplish more than their rural counterparts. Those in the city are considered to have a modern life and this lifestyle tends to fall into the mundane according to Alain de Botton’s “On Habit” this jadedness is due to the busyness of the average city dweller. Examples of this can be seen in Adam Gopnik’s “Bumping into Mr.Ravioli.” In “Bumping into Mr.Ravioli” the reader is able to see how a few residents of New York City deal with their relationships as they get sucked into the busyness. In Alain de Botton 's “On Habit” he goes over how residence of an area become jaded and bored with the areas they inhabit and they simply do not care enough to experience their surroundings, and this ties in with “Bumping into Mr.Ravioli” because it explains that New Yorkers are too busy to even try to enjoy their relationships, be it with family or friends. These conditions are perfect for the growth of various large events within cities; these events allow city dwellers to blow off steam. They seem to consolidate all the time they do have into just a few events in order to make their free time more memorable.

They’re people here that spend their entire lives together in the same building but have no clue of each other. There’s no sense of communication with fellow neighbors. The concept of “the metropolis and mental life”, describes this Upper East Side neighborhood. Simmel writes “The mental attitude of the people of the metropolis to one another be designated formally as one of reserve”. This reveals the connection between Simmel concepts and the Upper East Side.

Georg Simmel is hopeful that preserving, safeguarding, and nurturing our mental lives will then move forward to improving the metropolis. In a sense I think he’s right because if we all have stable minds and live in a harmonious way inside our mind, then that will subsequently make everyone in the metropolis happy. But I also disagree with him because while I do believe in the idea of understanding society, I find it kind of stupid how someone could think that just because our state of mind is a good one, then that will bring out the better part of us, then improving our society. Also, there is no way in hell everybody, will be able to expand their minds. There will always be that guy who got stuck with those shitty genes and ends up becoming a rapist or serial killer. Which will then make the metropolis unbalanced and everything turns into chaos. I find Simmel to almost afraid of society running out of control. The metropolis is described as a “city or symbol of modern society.” Which can consist of consumerist, rationalist, capitalist, and materialist. And mental life which is described as “what happens to and in us, and what defines us?” A word

and so the story goes: if one were to wander into the little tea-shop on the very edge of seventh avenue, they 'd immediately see a lone boy sitting there, a boy who somehow looks like there 's a puzzle piece missing from him, a boy who somehow has drooping eyes and hooded smiles like lunar eclipses. it could be his bruised-violet knuckles or his mussed hair or both, really, but he seems to be the very pinnacle of melancholy, porcelain-white and fragile with tidal waves etched into his skin and bones and veins and soul. there 's smudges of cobalt and cadmium yellow cracking underneath his crooked eyelashes, stained glass shattering within itself in disintegrating swirls of colour, and his posture is quieted as though a single blink will

Inside Booker’s tiny apartment, the rhythmic thrum of water hitting tiles did little to banish the bereft mood chilling the atmosphere. The dark-haired officer sat stiffly in a battered armchair, one hand clutching a glass of whiskey, the other resting on his knee, his fingers clenched, his knuckles shining white through the taut skin. His gaze remained fixed on the small wall clock mounted above the bookcase, his mind tuned into each metronomic tick as the second hand loudly announced the passing of time. When the two officers had returned from the hospital, Tom had followed Booker into the apartment, and without uttering a word, had walked into the bathroom and closed the door. Moments later, the sound of the shower had reached Booker’s ears,

The uncertainty towards the nature of urban life presents a compelling background for the investigation of present knowledge with reference to the impact of urbanisation on mental health and its subsequent consequences. The identification of the key factors that negatively affect mental wellbeing will assist a range of researchers and urban and regional planners in the development and implementation of appropriate urban interventions.

The intensification of rapidly changing stimulations in the city requires the individual to “create a protective organ” manifesting itself in a “matter-of-fact attitude”. This attitude rather than concerning itself with emotions takes on a rational mentality and gives rise to intellectualism. In other words, instead of letting constant encounters with unexpected smells, objects, actions, noises, events, people agitate the nerves and react emotionally, the individual approaches everything in a logical manner. This rational mentality of a purely intellectual individual inevitably leads to a blasé mind set, an apathetic outlook to that which is happening around them. This blasé attitude is a necessary response against the threat of individuality.

Human interaction become short and instrumental lacking emotional and personal involvement. We choose our relationships and social groups for objective reasons. Georg Simmel’s The Metropolis and Mental Life” demonstrates the importance of money to us: “Money, with all its colorless and indifference becomes the common denominator of all values” (27). These choices tend to be goal oriented, such as in “what am i going to get out of this?” and “Is this really worth my time”. Simmel focused on two forms of culture, found either in the small town or the large city, subjective and objective. He found that a key urban problem was the increased objective culture, where individuals are not fully engaged in the culture of the community; they are detached

As individuals in the city, we preserve our individuality. People are enslaved to time, working under the clock. Structure of the city makes the people have less time for themselves. Everything is moving and it's either you leave or get left. Simmel suggest that To becomes a true individual you must face all the struggles. Mark abolishing all the trials and tribulation. City life was just too fast paced for people to have time for interaction or time to stop and explore the environment. too many complex groups and relationships, as are found in the city, can increase the level of stimuli and contribute to the blasé metropolitan attitude. That reveals that the blasé attitude is a defense mechanism to help us preserve emotional energy. The city

This report will focus on the text ‘The Metropolis & Mental life’ by Georg Simmel and the key arguments of this primary text. It will start off with a key biography of himself and the influences which he had then will go onto explaining the contribution this key author makes to social theory.

The social theories that I find particularly insightful in the study of cities are the Durkheim and Weber classical theories. Durkheim’s theory argues that societies are held together by social cement known as collective consciousness, which forms a moral basis of team spirit. In contrast, the emergent society is characterized by change, complexity and demands division of labor among individuals in the society. According to Durkheim, complex societies gave rise to social interactions or moral density among individuals. Durkheim believed that division of labor arises from increasing moral density in the society. Consequently, cities arise from the need of people to remain in close contact with each other and to uphold collective consciousness (Bounds 7).

Simmel's work overlaps with that of Louis Wirth. Most notably their work overlaps in the struggle to define the social relationships that are made in urban societies to those that are made in rural communities. Wirth conveys this message in his work called, "Urbanism as a Way of Life." Wirth writes, "The superficiality, the anonymity, and the transitory character of urban-social relations make intelligible, also, the sophistication and the rationality generally ascribed to city dwellers." (Metropolis, 68) Both Wirth and Simmel are aware that the social relationships of city dwellers are ones based on intelligence and rationality and are removed of emotion. However, with Wirth, I would like to focus on his idea that a city is not only high in population, but it is also high density and high heterogeneity and how these things play a role in the social relationships of rural and urban communities.