of sensory overload in his 1903 essay "The Metropolis and Mental Life". Simmel describes an urban landscape of constant sensory stimuli against which the city-dweller must create a barrier in order to remain sane. For Simmel, the sensory overload of modern urban life depletes the body's reservoirs of energy, leading, among other things, to a jaded or blasé [blasiert] mentality and a calculating, instrumentalizing approach to others. Simmel's approach can be compared to Freud's writings on shell shock as well as Walter Benjamin's analysis of "shock" and urban life in his 1939 essay "On Some Motifs in Baudelaire". See also Sensory adaptation Sensory deprivation Sensory processing disorders Sensory substitution Catatonia Highly sensitive person Heat intolerance References Sensory systems Perception Experimental psychology Psychological torture techniques Physical torture techniques Interrogation techniques Cyberpunk themes