Perspectivas psicanalíticas da psicopatologização contemporânea: o lugar social da psiquiatria e a busca do sujeito pelo diagnóstico

Abstract

This study addressed, from psychoanalytic perspectives, the phenomenon of psychopathologization in contemporary society, delving into the role that psychiatry occupies in this society and the active participation of the subject in their pursuit of psychiatric diagnosis. To accomplish this, a literature review was conducted along with four semi-structured interviews with participants who have psychiatric diagnoses and/or self-diagnoses, seeking to understand the pursuit of diagnosis and the place it holds for the subject. The work investigates how contemporary psychopathology is structured, the notions of normality and pathology, as well as a historical contextualization of psychiatry until its contemporary hegemony through diagnostic manuals. It then seeks to elucidate psychopathologization, medicalization, and the pursuit of diagnosis, presenting some of the factors that may influence this diagnostic epidemic and the counterposition of psychoanalysis to this functioning. Following this, it delves into psychoanalytic perspectives regarding the contemporary, its forms of helplessness and discontent, the social place of psychiatry, and the constitution and affects of the subject in this scenario. The conclusions point to psychiatry as responsible for the naming and regulating the contemporary discontent, establishing a normalization in accordance with the narcissistic and performative conception of the contemporary. Subjects are individually held responsible for their suffering, with diagnosis becoming part of their identity through identification both with the naming and with the group that also receives it