TITLE:
Sensation Seeking and Anesthetization: On Christoph Türcke and the Traumas of Modernization
AUTHORS:
Matteo Angelo Mollisi
KEYWORDS:
Christoph Türcke, Modernization, Sensation, Anesthetization, Trauma
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.14 No.6,
June
16,
2026
ABSTRACT: This article examines Christoph Türcke’s theory of modernization as developed in Erregte Gesellschaft: Philosophie der Sensation (Türcke, 2002), focusing on its implications for understanding the genesis of capitalism and the transformation of human experience. It highlights two key dynamics: the autonomization of the market as a central organizing force of modern society, and the necessity of buffering the social and psychic disruptions produced by industrialization. According to Türcke, modernity could only stabilize itself by compensating for lost forms of experience through the production of sensory “surrogates”. The article emphasizes the decisive role of modern media—from the printing press to digital technologies—in both processes. Media not only enabled the expansion of market logic through the imperative of self-advertisement and sensation production, but also provided forms of “concentrated distraction” that mitigated the nervous strain of modern life, while at the same time undermining long-standing cognitive capacities and weakening perception. Situating Türcke alongside Media Ecology and Sensory Studies, the article underscores the originality of his focus on libidinal economy and the sensory infrastructure of experience, including the centrality of touch. It further explores the interplay between sensation and anesthetization, arguing that modern media simultaneously stimulate and neutralize the sensorium. Through examples such as photography, shop windows, and railways, the article shows how modern experience is shaped by a dialectic of shock and soothing. Finally, it proposes that the erosion of historical continuity constitutes a third “cumulative trauma” of modernity, pointing toward the need for a renewed critical theory as a form of social therapeutics.