Les pathologies hypermodernes: expression d'une nouvelle normalité?

Abstract

Speaking about “hypermodern pathologies” aims to show the relation between features of the “hypermodern society” and different types of pathologies associated with these characteristics. Globalisation and the greater overall flexibility of the economy, the revolution in communication technologies and consequent need for ever-greater reactivity, the triumph of market logic and the disintegration of all limits that had previously overseen the construction of individual identities have led to the emergence of a compulsive individual, whose behaviour is marked by excess: an individual with no resources outside of his own person, whose sensations have overtaken his sentiments.

Physical and psychic pathologies affecting the hypermodern individual reflect the functioning of this society: attachment pathologies such as the addiction to substances designed to increase performance; eating disorders such as obesity and anorexia which also constitute ways of experimenting with the last remaining limits, those of the body; and professional “overheating” pathologies linked to the “hyperfunctioning” required of individuals, which compels them to an ever-quicker work rhythm, exhausts their limits and leads them to brutal disconnections.

In this article, I explain how these pathologies are the expression of changes in the normal/pathologic balance. They indicate the appearance of a new kind of normality, especially belonging to our contemporary society and linked to the adaptation skills that this society requires of individuals.

Keywords:

• pathology
• hypermodernism
• excess
• normality
• performance
• exhaustion

Notes

1. Sur cette étymologie du terme, nous nous appuyons sur Stiegler (2004).