ABSTRACT
To look at the concept of individualisation and liquidity, freedom and its consequences is fundamental because of ‘the betrayed promise of freedom and happiness for all’, which leads to a state of broken individualisation. Like Jung, Beck also worked on his individualisation theory throughout his life and it became one of his trademarks. It was in Risk Society, published in Germany in 1986, that Beck first mentioned individualisation theory and the concept of second modernity. Bauman’s theory of liquidity overlaps with those of Beck and Beck-Gernsheim in claiming that, in second modernity, individuals become responsible for their own lives. Jung’s individuation could provide an answer, perhaps even an antidote, to the current broken individualisation/liquidity and consequent anomie. This chapter proposes that – if individualisation and liquidity lead to solipsism and anomie – individuation is a way out through meditation.
