Self-blame converts revolutionary anger into individualized depression

Evidence

People who fail in the neoliberal achievement-society see themselves as responsible for their lot and feel shame instead of questioning society or the system. Herein lies the particular intelligence defining the neoliberal regime: no resistance to the system can emerge in the first place. In contrast, when allo-exploitation prevails, the exploited are still able to show solidarity and unite against those who exploit them. Such is the logic on which Marx’s idea of a ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ is based. However, this vision presupposes that relations of repression and domination hold. Now, under the neoliberal regime of auto-exploitation, people are turning their aggression against themselves. This auto-aggressivity means that the exploited are not inclined to revolution so much as depression. — Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics, 27

Categorization

• XREF: The attribution of failure to the self rather than the system connects to discussions of meritocracy’s ideology and to the Frankfurt study of authoritarian character. — connects to: Individual frustrations produce personal blame; group frustrations produce outgroup blame. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1578; Depression is a despecialization that ruptures the social bond — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 20; Depression is the self-exploiting subject’s loss of ability, an internalized war. — Byung-Chul Han, The Burnout Society, 34 (+7 more)

Related

• Depression results when meritocratic self-blame meets limited opportunity (similarity 0.87)
• Unlimited self-optimization becomes a new coercion producing depression and burnout (similarity 0.80)
• Privatized personal depression is being displaced by public political anger. (similarity 0.80)
• Depression is the self-exploiting subject’s loss of ability, an internalized war. (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Individual frustrations produce personal blame; group frustrations produce outgroup blame. #corroborates (0.85) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1578
• Blaming the system rather than oneself can protect self-esteem #complicates (0.85) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 1097
• Neoliberal crisis narratives redirect blame from structures onto individual psychology #expands (0.85) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 433
• Depression is the self-exploiting subject’s loss of ability, an internalized war. #expands (0.80) — Byung-Chul Han, The Burnout Society, 34
• Victims’ aggression gets reframed as the victim’s own deviance #complicates (0.78)
• Cornered destructiveness stops distinguishing self-destruction from outward violence #expands (0.78) — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, 118
• Depression is a despecialization that ruptures the social bond #expands (0.75) — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 20
• Collective action can reframe self-estrangement from dread into transcendence #responds-to (0.72) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 1089