From generalized suffering to the ethics of the singular

echoes of the analytic experience in the polis

Abstract

This article analyzes how suffering is captured and instrumentalized through the alliance of hegemonic discourses of neoliberalism, scientism, and medicalization, and the consequences of this dynamic in the production of adapted, productive, and happy subjectivities. In this context, there is a rise of clinical practices aimed at productivity, measurable well-being, and social adaptation, promoting the erasure of fundamental dimensions of human experience. In contrast, psychoanalysis, by upholding a space for listening to the subject of desire, takes a critical and dissonant stance against the colonization and generalization of suffering. This difference directly affects the ethics that guide the psychoanalyst’s praxis, placing them in constant tension with the dominant discourses of culture, science, and the market. Finally, the article explores the implications of this distinction not only on the clinical level but also within ethical and political spheres, as the psychoanalyst emerges as a discursive figure who introduces a fissure in contemporary normativity.