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

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dc.contributor.advisorLatham, Robert E.
dc.contributor.authorKingsmith, Adam Taylor
dc.date.accessioned2023-12-08T14:50:36Z
dc.date.available2023-12-08T14:50:36Z
dc.date.issued2023-12-08
dc.date.updated2023-12-08T14:50:36Z
dc.degree.disciplinePolitical Science
dc.degree.levelDoctoral
dc.degree.namePhD - Doctor of Philosophy
dc.description.abstractThis 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.
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10315/41788
dc.languageen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectPolitical Science
dc.subjectMental health
dc.subjectEconomics, Labor
dc.subject.keywordsAnxiety
dc.subject.keywordsAI
dc.subject.keywordsBiomedical
dc.subject.keywordsBoredom
dc.subject.keywordsCapitalism
dc.subject.keywordsCBT
dc.subject.keywordsCommunity
dc.subject.keywordsConspiracy
dc.subject.keywordsControl society
dc.subject.keywordsDatafication
dc.subject.keywordsDispossession
dc.subject.keywordsDSM
dc.subject.keywordsEconomics
dc.subject.keywordsEmotion
dc.subject.keywordsFordism
dc.subject.keywordsGamification
dc.subject.keywordsHealth policy
dc.subject.keywordsHomo economicus
dc.subject.keywordsIatrogenesis
dc.subject.keywordsLabor
dc.subject.keywordsLiberation health
dc.subject.keywordsMarket psychopathology
dc.subject.keywordsMedicalization
dc.subject.keywordsMental health
dc.subject.keywordsMindfulness
dc.subject.keywordsMisery
dc.subject.keywordsNeoliberalism
dc.subject.keywordsPolitical economy
dc.subject.keywordsPsychiatrization
dc.subject.keywordsProductivity
dc.subject.keywordsProletarianization
dc.subject.keywordsReciprocity
dc.subject.keywordsSelf-quantification
dc.subject.keywordsSocial factory
dc.subject.keywordsSolidarity
dc.subject.keywordsStructure of feeling
dc.subject.keywordsSubjectivity
dc.subject.keywordsTechnology
dc.titleThe Political Life of Anxiety: Market Psychopathologies and the Production of Subjectivity
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

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