The BSc thesis at hand deals with the psychopathology of the postmodern individual. I interpret his/her individual identity, issues with identification and propensity for action as a general, cultural psychopathology connected with the postmodern age. The central question is whether the postmodern ideology, in the face of rapid civilizational changes which also influenced the transformation of individual and collective identifications and institutions of critical relevance to these (family, educational institutions), provides the individual with a reference frame or existential foundation suitable for living in a world of insecurity.
On the basis of critical reading and evaluation of selected literature in the fields of philosophy, psychology and psychoanalysis, cultural studies and anthropology, I hereby establish that the postmodern individual is exposed to numerous destabilizing personal pressures. These frustrations are not only intimate: the psychopathology of the individual is simultaneously a social/cultural psychopathology. I illustrate the latter with two common disorders, borderline personality disorder and narcissism.
The postmodern thought does not offer applicable answers to the challenges of life in contemporary reality. On the one hand, it is aimed at heavily criticizing the (neo)liberal economy and the cultural logic of Western capitalist society – from this point of view, it is an important critical corrective that draws attention to inequalities – and yet, on the other, does not offer any original tools or ideas for overcoming personal existential uncertainties inherent in our zeitgeist, which require both local and global responses. In this sense, it would appear that postmodernism is alienated from the reality of everyday life.
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