Discontentment and its discourses: a critique of the therapeutic instrumentalization of existence

Abstract

This article examines contemporary malaise as a structural condition that has been depoliticized through processes of psychologization, medicalization, and emotional management. Based on the theoretical framework proposed by López Petit in La movilización global (2009), in dialogue with critical authors of Positive Psychology, the article analyzes the mechanisms that individualize suffering and neutralize its collective dimension: the exaltation of the self, emotional normativity, the instrumentalization of vulnerability, and the culture of fear. It argues that these dynamics respond to a neoliberal logic that redefines malaise as an individual dysfunction, thus hindering its critical reappropriation. Finally, the article explores the possibility of spaces such as philosophical consulting, not as a therapeutic or definitive solution, but as a critical form of reappropriation of malaise, where it can be conceived outside of clinical categories and in a political sense.