Fatigue as the unconscious refusal of the demands of late capitalism

Journal article


Diserholt, A. 2021. Fatigue as the unconscious refusal of the demands of late capitalism. Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41282-021-00240-6
AuthorsDiserholt, A.
Abstract

This paper explores fatigue in today’s society by drawing on popular culture and interviews conducted as part of a doctoral research study of nine people suffering from chronic fatigue. With a focus on the ideology of late capitalism, it examines how the emergence of fatigue might be one way of unconsciously refusing the demand for constant activity and presence found therein. To this end, the paper relies on Lacanian psychoanalytic theory, drawing on the concepts of anorexia (as a refusal of a demand and an embodied disappearance), the drive, desire and mourning to show how the subject’s refusal emerges at the intersection between the body and the social.

KeywordsFatigue; Anorexia; Capitalism; Mourning; Qualitative research; Lacanian theory; Lacanian discourse analysis
Year2021
JournalPsychoanalysis, Culture and Society
PublisherSpringer Nature
ISSN1088-0763
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1057/s41282-021-00240-6
Official URLhttps://link.springer.com/article/10.1057%2Fs41282-021-00240-6
Publication dates
Print27 Sep 2021
Publication process dates
Accepted16 Mar 2021
Deposited29 Nov 2021
Accepted author manuscript
File Access Level
Open
Output statusPublished
Permalink -

https://repository.canterbury.ac.uk/item/8zv12/fatigue-as-the-unconscious-refusal-of-the-demands-of-late-capitalism

Download files


Accepted author manuscript
  • 214
    total views
  • 212
    total downloads
  • 2
    views this month
  • 2
    downloads this month

Export as

Related outputs

Depression and melancholia revisited via Lacan
Diserholt, Amanda 2024. Depression and melancholia revisited via Lacan. Theory & Psychology. 34 (4), pp. 551-553. https://doi.org/10.1177/09593543241261999
Breast cancer survivors’ lived experience of adjuvant hormone therapy: a thematic analysis of medication side effects and their impact on adherence
Ibrar, Maryam, Peddie, Nicola, Agnew, Sommer, Diserholt, Amanda and Fleming, Leanne 2022. Breast cancer survivors’ lived experience of adjuvant hormone therapy: a thematic analysis of medication side effects and their impact on adherence. Frontiers in Psychology. 13, p. 861198. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.861198
Fatigue and the mind-body relation: A Lacanian exploration
Diserholt, A. 2020. Fatigue and the mind-body relation: A Lacanian exploration. PhD Thesis Edinburgh Napier University School of Applied Sciences