The Psychic Life in the Context of Postmodernity:

Knots Produced by Late Capitalism and Diagnostic Classification Manuals

Abstract

This theoretical essay outlines a critical path around psychiatry and late capitalism in the 20th and early 21st centuries, aiming to question whether there is a device implanted by capitalism within psychiatric discourse that exposes—or leads us to consider—the existence of a neoliberal project in the field of mental health, oriented toward profit, or whether the place of this device is empty and merely the result of coincidence. To that end, we briefly revisit the history of the editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), including its break from the theoretical foundations of psychoanalysis, its transformation into an atheoretical and descriptive manual, and the growing number of cataloged nosological entities. From this historical perspective, we argue that there is a possible articulation between the successive editions of the DSM and the simultaneous rise of late capitalism and/or neoliberalism. To construct a critical examination of this context, we draw on authors who help us think through these processes, such as Jacques-Alain Miller, Jean-Claude Milner, Christian Dunker, Élisabeth Roudinesco, Jonathan Crary, and Bruce Fink. At the conclusion of this essay, we choose to leave the initial question open, inviting the reader to assign the meaning that seems most coherent with the discussions raised here.