Critical Psychology in Neoliberal Capitalism

Abstract

The new models of work ethics and management concepts pose new demands on the subjects, that are referred to as »self-governing« by the governementality studies. They liberate them from fordistic boundaries but are market-mediated and often quickly turn out to be coercive. To analyze both aspects a theory of the subject is needed, that differentiates between societal demands on the one hand and how they are realized or declined by the acting subjects on the other. The article shows that there are some shortcomings within the governementality studies regarding this differentiation (due to the subjectivity-concept taken from Lacan) as well as in framing the management concepts within the demands of the new, neoliberal mode of production and patterns of living (Gramsci) that are fought for – from above and below, within work, concepts of the wellfare state and everyday culture. Referring to the Berlin school of Critical Psychology the article shows how these demands are brought forward by mobilization of emotions and discusses this as a new form of »restrictive action potency«. By doing so it aims to modernize the Critical Psychology to meet the new forms of neoliberal domination and action potency.