The Political Life of Anxiety: Market Psychopathologies and the Production of Subjectivity

This dissertation critically examines the phenomenon of increasing anxiety in the context of modern capitalist societies, or what is termed ‘anxio-capitalism.’ The research starts by analysing the historical and conceptual trajectory of anxiety, exploring the development of its definitions, perceptions, and instrumental function in the production of subjectivity under capitalism, feeding a perception of humans as self-interested market actors. Through a survey of market psycho-pathologies that looks at shifts from ‘laissez-faire misery’ and ‘Fordist boredom’ to ‘neoliberal anxiety’ it illuminates how the dynamics of mental and emotional health evolved alongside new forms of economic and socio-technical management termed ‘social factories.’ Subsequently, the dissertation focuses on the rising influence of the biomedical industry, laying out its tendency to commodify and pathologize mental health and wellbeing. The discussion then delves into the intersection of biomedical practices and machine intelligence, revealing a system that fosters a culture of normalized anxiety and self-quantification that is perpetuating the mental health crisis.

It argues that a deep-set paradox of dis/empowerment underpins this mental health crisis, as the social factory of anxio-capitalism simultaneously promotes the idea of the sovereign, rational individual yet imperceptibly structures people’s experiences and perceptions of anxiety within a market-driven framework. This pathologizing of unproductive behaviours and emotions leads to their medicalization, leveraging human suffering as a market for pharmaceuticals and therapeutic services. The resultant effect is the formation of disoriented epistemologies that draw people into isolating reactionary fantasies and conspiratorial ‘hypercultures.’ The dissertation examines both the personalizing and de-personalizing impacts of these pathologies on the potentials for collective consciousness and communal politics, proposing a reframing of anxiety through ‘trans-diagnostic praxis’ and ‘anxious solidarity.’ In essence, this project offers an in-depth critique of the systemic structures that produce and manage the proliferation of anxiety, simultaneously probing strategies for responding to escalating mental health challenges in the context of anxio-capitalism.