What Comes After Depression? The Crisis of Neoliberal Subjectivity and the New Authoritarian Wave in Brazil

On the basis of an analysis of Brazil’s political history from 2013 to the present, this essay advances the idea that the current rise of the far right – in that country and possibly elsewhere – can be understood as one among various political expressions of a ‘post-depressive constellation.’ Such a...

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Autor principal:	Arthur Bueno
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN NL
Publicado:	University of Groningen Press 2021
Materias:	crisis neoliberalism depression authoritarianism effervescence Social Sciences H Political science (General) JA1-92 Philosophy (General) B1-5802
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/a929734c88db415490516a487be7f639
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:a929734c88db415490516a487be7f6392021-12-02T16:34:01ZWhat Comes After Depression? The Crisis of Neoliberal Subjectivity and the New Authoritarian Wave in Brazil1875-710310.21827/krisis.41.1.37167https://doaj.org/article/a929734c88db415490516a487be7f6392021-06-01T00:00:00Zhttps://krisis.eu/article/view/37167https://doaj.org/toc/1875-7103On the basis of an analysis of Brazil’s political history from 2013 to the present, this essay advances the idea that the current rise of the far right – in that country and possibly elsewhere – can be understood as one among various political expressions of a ‘post-depressive constellation.’ Such a diagnosis takes its cue from analyses which, in the 1990s and 2000s, recognised in the rapid increase in the depression rates an index of major social transformations occurring in the last decades of the 20th century. The foregrounding of depression in clinical diagnoses was considered, then, the sign of a new social order: one in which individuals were faced with ever stronger requirements of self-responsibility and authentic self-realization (i.e., the demand of ‘being oneself’) in a context of declining social support and escalating inequality, competition and precariousness. Today, however, we seem to have reached a point at which the tensions of this order – which can be designated, metonymically, as the ‘depressive society’ – intensified to such an extent that its persistence appears to be seriously compromised. It is in this sense that we may speak of a post-depressive constellation: a situation in which the social psychological tensions of the depressive order have reached a peak, leading to a variety of reactions and struggles but not yet to the establishment of a new consensus and a stable institutional framework. While suggesting that such a diagnosis might be significant for understanding contemporary political processes in many parts of the world, this essay will focus on how these dynamics have unravelled in Brazil’s recent political life – from the mass demonstrations of June 2013 to the rise of new right-wing movements that culminated in the election of Jair Bolsonaro. The Brazilian case seems, indeed, particularly well-suited to examine the contours and outcomes of this possibly broader process. It allows, in particular, for the distinction of two political forms that have taken centre stage in the past years and can be understood as reactions to core tensions of the depressive order: ‘post-depressive effervescence’ (as it emerged in key moments of the June 2013 protests and their continuation in the following months) and ‘post-depressive authoritarianism’ (as it has progressively built up from the 2013 demonstrations to the election of Bolsonaro).Arthur BuenoUniversity of Groningen PressarticlecrisisneoliberalismdepressionauthoritarianismeffervescenceSocial SciencesHPolitical science (General)JA1-92Philosophy (General)B1-5802ENNLKrisis, Vol 41, Iss 1, Pp 45-64 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN NL
topic	crisis neoliberalism depression authoritarianism effervescence Social Sciences H Political science (General) JA1-92 Philosophy (General) B1-5802
spellingShingle	crisis neoliberalism depression authoritarianism effervescence Social Sciences H Political science (General) JA1-92 Philosophy (General) B1-5802 Arthur Bueno What Comes After Depression? The Crisis of Neoliberal Subjectivity and the New Authoritarian Wave in Brazil
description	On the basis of an analysis of Brazil’s political history from 2013 to the present, this essay advances the idea that the current rise of the far right – in that country and possibly elsewhere – can be understood as one among various political expressions of a ‘post-depressive constellation.’ Such a diagnosis takes its cue from analyses which, in the 1990s and 2000s, recognised in the rapid increase in the depression rates an index of major social transformations occurring in the last decades of the 20th century. The foregrounding of depression in clinical diagnoses was considered, then, the sign of a new social order: one in which individuals were faced with ever stronger requirements of self-responsibility and authentic self-realization (i.e., the demand of ‘being oneself’) in a context of declining social support and escalating inequality, competition and precariousness. Today, however, we seem to have reached a point at which the tensions of this order – which can be designated, metonymically, as the ‘depressive society’ – intensified to such an extent that its persistence appears to be seriously compromised. It is in this sense that we may speak of a post-depressive constellation: a situation in which the social psychological tensions of the depressive order have reached a peak, leading to a variety of reactions and struggles but not yet to the establishment of a new consensus and a stable institutional framework. While suggesting that such a diagnosis might be significant for understanding contemporary political processes in many parts of the world, this essay will focus on how these dynamics have unravelled in Brazil’s recent political life – from the mass demonstrations of June 2013 to the rise of new right-wing movements that culminated in the election of Jair Bolsonaro. The Brazilian case seems, indeed, particularly well-suited to examine the contours and outcomes of this possibly broader process. It allows, in particular, for the distinction of two political forms that have taken centre stage in the past years and can be understood as reactions to core tensions of the depressive order: ‘post-depressive effervescence’ (as it emerged in key moments of the June 2013 protests and their continuation in the following months) and ‘post-depressive authoritarianism’ (as it has progressively built up from the 2013 demonstrations to the election of Bolsonaro).
format	article
author	Arthur Bueno
author_facet	Arthur Bueno
author_sort	Arthur Bueno
title	What Comes After Depression? The Crisis of Neoliberal Subjectivity and the New Authoritarian Wave in Brazil
title_short	What Comes After Depression? The Crisis of Neoliberal Subjectivity and the New Authoritarian Wave in Brazil
title_full	What Comes After Depression? The Crisis of Neoliberal Subjectivity and the New Authoritarian Wave in Brazil
title_fullStr	What Comes After Depression? The Crisis of Neoliberal Subjectivity and the New Authoritarian Wave in Brazil
title_full_unstemmed	What Comes After Depression? The Crisis of Neoliberal Subjectivity and the New Authoritarian Wave in Brazil
title_sort	what comes after depression? the crisis of neoliberal subjectivity and the new authoritarian wave in brazil
publisher	University of Groningen Press
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/a929734c88db415490516a487be7f639
work_keys_str_mv	AT arthurbueno whatcomesafterdepressionthecrisisofneoliberalsubjectivityandthenewauthoritarianwaveinbrazil
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What Comes After Depression? The Crisis of Neoliberal Subjectivity and the New Authoritarian Wave in Brazil

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