Subjective Precarity: Mental Health from a Sociological Perspective in Contemporaneity
Present since the 1970s, the theme of mental health has gained significant importance in the 2000s, particularly in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic has had a considerable impact on individuals' subjectivity, intensifying mental health issues and making the question even more relevant both for academic and scientific research and for society in general. The aim of this research is to study the relationship between neoliberalism, subjectivity, and mental health, taking into account the impact and sociological importance of the Covid-19 pandemic. To do so, we will analyze the intellectual production that directly or indirectly addresses the relationship between neoliberalism, subjectivity, and mental health in the context of the pandemic, as well as studies presenting global psychiatric epidemiology during the pandemic and the current period. We also aim to understand and study collective experiences that can cope with subjective precarity, psychological exhaustion, and processes of individual pathologization. In doing so, we hope to provide sociological insights to understand and problematize the high incidence of mental suffering in the post-pandemic period, as well as to politicize mental health issues as a social and collective experience, contrary to the explanations of hegemonic psychiatry and neoliberal culture, which tend to reduce the problem to the individual dimension. This post-doctoral research project is part of a broader research project on the relationship between neoliberalism (neoliberal culture) and subjectivity (subjective precarity), aiming to find sociological elements to understand and problematize mental health issues in contemporary times. Considering the biopsychosocial complexity of mental health, the research aims to make a sociological contribution to understanding the phenomenon.
