Abstract

PAVON-CUELLAR, David. Subjectivity and psychology in neoliberal capitalism. Rev. psicol. polít. [online]. 2017, vol.17, n.40, pp.589-607. ISSN 1519-549X.

This article analyses the situation of subjectivity and the function of psychology in liberal and neoliberal capitalism. The capitalist system is situated within the framework of a market economy whose freedom is fundamentally the freedom of capital. It is argued that this freedom, as promoted by liberals and neoliberals, can only be transferred to a subject that has been previously objectified, alienated, commodified and assimilated to capital. The argument of the article requires addressing the following questions: the psychological core of liberalism and neoliberalism, the neoliberal tendency of depoliticization and psychologization, the successive psychological conceptions of subjectivity in the history of liberal thought, the way in which psychology has been used to naturalize the socioeconomic system, the unnatural character of liberal and neoliberal capitalism, the resulting normopathic profile of the subject under conditions of liberalism-neoliberalism, and the transition from a biopolitical to a psycho-political regime in neoliberal times.

Keywords : subjectivity; psychology; capitalism; liberalism; neoliberalism.

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