#80: Being working class in a middle class world (ft. Cynthia Cruz)

Cynthia Cruz, author of 'The Melancholia of Class: A Manifesto for the Working Class' joins Psychotherapist Harriet Fraad and Substance Abuse Councillor Ikoi to discuss the 'invisibility' of class, the cost of assimilation into the middle class, eating disorders, substance abuse and many other issues.

'To be working-class in a middle-class world is to be a ghost. Excluded, marginalised, and subjected to violence, the working class is also deemed by those in power to not exist. We are left with a choice between assimilation into middle-class values and culture, leaving our working-class origins behind, or total annihilation.

In The Melancholia of Class, Cynthia Cruz analyses how this choice between assimilation or annihilation has played out in the lives of working-class musicians, artists, writers, and filmmakers — including Amy Winehouse, Ian Curtis, Jason Molina, Barbara Loden, and many more — and the resultant Freudian melancholia that ensues when the working-class subject leaves their origins to “become someone,” only to find that they lose themselves in the process.'

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The Melancholia of Class: A Manifesto for the Working Class: https://repeaterbooks.com/product/the-melancholia-of-class-a-manifesto-for-the-working-class/

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