The Iso-Type: The Panoptic Zeal,the Uncanny,and the Seeds of a New Social Character

Abstract

This article attempts to show how regulation of society with standardization and procedures for everything risks creating what is here called the Iso-Type character. Starting off with Jeremy Bentham’s thoughts about panoptical control, then reviewing work on social character, the author uses Freud’s concept of the uncanny to understand the chaos anxiety that underlies much of the need for standard regulation and control. To illustrate the development, the author uses as an example the institution of the International Standard Organization, which represents the standardization efforts. The impact and implementation of such standardization in society is not without side effects, some of which are listed here. The article attempts to describe unconscious social desire that is hypothesized at the bottom of this development.