On strangers: Phantasy, terror and the human imagination

This paper explores the interface between sociology and psychoanalysis using Zygmunt Bauman's notion of the 'stranger' as a conceptual tool to investigate the possibility of developing a sociology of the imagination. The aim of this paper is to explore the way in which we can look at human emotion without resorting to some form of cognitive science model and to understand the way in which we perceive and act in relation to others using some psychoanalytic ideas. In other words, how we can imagine how the imagination works in an interpretive, subjective and hermeneutic way and the specific implication this has for the basic human rights of individuals.