Pathologized, tired and lost

Sociological interpretations of the growth of depressions in late modernity

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15448/1984-7289.2021.1.39002

Keywords:

Depression, Sociological existentialism, Ontological security, Late modernity

Abstract

The article analyzes the emergence of depression as the most frequent mental illness in late modernity. From the sociological existentialism of Peters (2017), he conceives depression as a particular mode of ontological insecurity. He maintains that the increase in diagnoses is understandable based on three broad interpretative keys linked to transformations in late-modern societies. The first refers to a growing pathologization of anguish associated with the emergence of ways of conceptualizing psychic suffering. The second refers to the deepening of the self-realization imperatives that cause pathologies of the exhaustion of the self. The third highlights the expansion of a multiplicity of reference guides that manifests itself in a loss of meaning of existence. Contemporary depression simultaneously represents a rhetorical, action and sense pathology correlative with figurations of the pathologized, tired and lost subject.

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Author Biography

Esteban Grippaldi, Universidad Nacional del Litoral, (UNL), Santa Fé, Argentina

Graduated in Sociology from the Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Doctor in Social Sciences from the Universidad de Buenos Aires. Professor of Epistemological Problems of Sociology and Methodology of Qualitative Research in the Bachelor's degree in Sociology at the Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Doctoral fellow of the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas de Argentina at the Instituto de Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales del Litoral.

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Published

2021-05-04

How to Cite

Grippaldi, E. (2021). Pathologized, tired and lost : Sociological interpretations of the growth of depressions in late modernity. Civitas: Journal of Social Sciences, 21(1), 84–93. https://doi.org/10.15448/1984-7289.2021.1.39002

Issue

Section

Dossiê: Teoria Social e Sociologia Existencial