Interpellation
Interpellation is the process by which individuals acquire their self-awareness as subjects, and the skills and characteristics necessary for their status in society (Guralnik, & Simeon, 2012).
When we are born we are provided with our initial social placement by our parents and families. The beliefs and values that our families hold are initially instilled in us as young individuals. As we grow, individuals believe that they develop the skills and characteristics for becoming more independent, self-reliant and self-aware. However, in this society we share the ideological belief that we are independent beings, yet in such moments we are exposed as defined and possessed by forces beyond us (Guralnik, & Simeon, 2012). To this end, interpellation can be considered two-fold. To elaborate on Guralnik and Simeon’s statement in their article Depersonalization: Standing in the Spaces, Between Recognition and Interpellation, we as a society do share the same ideological belief that we are independent individuals following our own ideas. When we are exposed to the powers beyond our control we adhere to and are drawn in a conforming manner leaving us no longer the autonomous and self-governing person. The higher powers of our society dictate our behaviour more than we even realize.
We are defined, for example, by our work where only certain aspects of what we do allow us autonomy while we have to conform to the rules and regulation of the organization. In our every work life positions we are restricted by policies that govern forcing us to often do what we don’t believe in, therefore, acting in the manner of someone that does not represent us and our beliefs.
Media is another forum that contributes to shaping individuals. Again, for the most part and for most people the belief is that we have our own style and make individual decisions regarding our appearance; how to dress and how to behave in certain situations. In saying this we are constantly bombarded with incessant advertising of clothing, make up, hair products, skin products; the list goes on and on. This media message portrays to individuals how that should look and think. The reality is individuals are consciously or subconsciously sucked in.
Althusser used the term interpellation as the way in which ideology takes hold of an individual. He stated that all ideology hails or interpellates concrete individuals as concrete subjects, by the functioning of the category of the subject (Althusser, 1970). The term hailing is seen as the recruiting of a subject into a dominant system . To me this represents itself as a militant term ‘forcing” an individual to enrol in a governing environment. We witness this through our government and other authoritative figures and organizations that feel they have the power over the individual’s choices.
In terms of psychology we can see how this authoritative voice meets the individual’s basic need for recognition and allows them their transformation into subjects. Althusser’s uses the example of how we feel when hailed by a policeman: “Hey you!” to which we immediately assume a guilty role and wonder what we have done wrong. What is it in our society that makes us feel that we have something to answer to if we are confronted my a dominant figure such as a policeman or a Minster of government? It stops us in our tracks with the belief that we have to immediately come to a halt and claim our wrong doing. Althusser mentions in his article Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses;
I shall then suggest that ideology ‘acts’ or ‘functions’ in such a way that it ‘recruits’ subjects among the individuals (it recruits them all), or ‘transforms’ the individuals into subjects (it transforms them all) by that very precise operation which I have called interpellation or hailing, and which can be imagined along the lines of the most commonplace everyday police (or other) hailing: ‘Hey, you there!’ (Althusser, 1970).
The term “recruit” that Althusser uses in his article can be used to define the ways which we are are sought out and enrolled in certain ideologies which results in our own interpellations. However, not everyone will be “recruited” or “hailed” into the same ideologies. People who deviate from certain social norms in society may not stop when an authoritative figure such as a police officer tells them to stop. Althusser makes the point in his article Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses that The existence of ideology and the hailing or interpellation of individuals as subjects are one and the same thing (Althusser, 1970).
References
Althusser, Louis. “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses.” Lenin and Philosophy, and Other Essays. Trans. Ben Brewster. London: New Left Books, 1971. 127-188.
Guralnik, O. & Simeon, D. (2012). Depersonalization: Standing in the Spaces, Between Recognition and Interpellation, Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 20:400–416, 2010.
Marshall, G. (1998). Interpellation. A Dictionary of Sociology 1998. Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved from http://www.encyclopedia.com.
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