La gobernanza emocional en el capitalismo avanzado. Entre el nihilismo emotivista y el neocomunitarismo adaptativo

Starting from its historical origins, capitalism has developed an increasingly complex and conflictive emotional culture that has culminated in the expressive individualism that is characteristic of neoliberal globalization. Post-Fordism has developed intense forms of emotional self-examination and cultivated a desire to overcome the traditional contradiction between the Calvinistic asceticism proper to the world of work and the hedonism of consumer society. The result should have been a “democracy of the emotions” that would relax the class conflict and extend progressive civic culture to the intimate sphere by means of fluent emotional communication. However, as communitarian criticism soon pointed out, neoliberal emotivism has instead led to an ethical de-foundation that has driven capitalist societies to subjective inclemency, damaged lives and emotional malaise as demonstrated by the contemporary epidemic of psychiatric disorders relating to the individual’s state of mind.