Depression is the self-exploiting subject’s loss of ability, an internalized war.

Evidence

In fact, Nietzsche would say that that human type in the process of becoming reality en masse is no sovereign superman but “the last man,” who does nothing but work. The new human type, standing exposed to excessive positivity without any defense, lacks all sovereignty. The depressive human being is an animal laborans that exploits itself—and it does so voluntarily, without external constraints. It is predator and prey at once. The self, in the strong sense of the word, still represents an immunological category. However, depression eludes all immunological schemes. It erupts at the moment when the achievement-subject is no longer able to be able [nicht mehr können kann]. First and foremost, depression is creative fatigue and exhausted ability [Schaffensund Könnensmüdigkeit]. The complaint of the depressive individual, “Nothing is possible,” can only occur in a society that thinks, “Nothing is impossible.” No-longer-being-able-to-be-able leads to destructive self-reproach and auto-aggression. The achievement-subject finds itself fighting with itself. The depressive has been wounded by internalized war. Depression is the sickness of a society that suffers from excessive positivity. It reflects a humanity waging war on itself. — Byung-Chul Han, The Burnout Society, 34

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The predator-and-prey-in-one-body figure plus ‘no longer able to be able’ and ‘Nothing is possible’ arising precisely in a ‘Nothing is impossible’ society is denser than a summaryable point.
• XREF: The ‘depression eludes all immunological schemes’ line is exactly the neuronal-vs-immunological claim the reader flagged as contestable, here stated as a strong thesis. — connects to: Self-blame converts revolutionary anger into individualized depression — Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New…, 27; Privatized personal depression is being displaced by public political anger.

Related

• The imperative to achieve, not self-responsibility, causes burnout and depression. (similarity 0.80)
• Depression and burnout stem from excess positivity, not repression (similarity 0.79)
• Unlimited self-optimization becomes a new coercion producing depression and burnout (similarity 0.79)
• Self-blame converts revolutionary anger into individualized depression (similarity 0.79)
• Depression results when meritocratic self-blame meets limited opportunity (similarity 0.79)
• The exhausted achievement-subject, not sovereign man, is the one who exploits himself. (similarity 0.79)
• Burnout is the pathology of voluntary self-exploitation, not lost sovereignty (similarity 0.78)