On the Imperative of Happiness in Contemporary Neoliberalism. A Psychoanalytical Reading of the New Spirit of Capitalism

Abstract

The article aims to make a psychoanalytic reading of the evolution of the spirit of capitalism. By reading Lacan, the paper shows that to achieve this we must distinguish between the level of enjoyment and that of happiness. If, in capitalism, the former has always remained the same, the latter, on the other hand, has undergone remarkable historical changes. Returning to the genealogy of neoliberalism made by Foucault in the late 1970s, and by analysing the recent expansion of the new discourses on happiness (positive psychology, the happiness index, etc.), the article shows three moments of the spirit of capitalism: the first, where the promise of happiness is replaced by that of enjoyment; the second, where the entrepreneur of himself finds happiness as a promise; the third, where happiness is not just a promise but also capital that the neoliberal subject must enhance.