Liviu Poenaru, Dec. 9, 2024

 

The "neurotic-borderline-capitalist agenda" can be understood as a systematic effort by cybercapitalism to shape individuals who are divided between neurosis and borderline structures. This dual structuring creates subjects who are simultaneously productive and pathologically dependent—"sufficiently normal" to function as workers and "sufficiently pathological" to drive consumption. This dynamic reflects a calculated strategy to optimize economic utility, ensuring individuals remain trapped within the cycles of production and consumption.

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On the neurotic axis, individuals embody characteristics traditionally valued by capitalist systems. They are submissive, anxious, and obsessed with productivity, wealth, and status. Their internalized guilt and anxiety are channeled into relentless work and adherence to capitalist norms, driving a form of productivity rooted in repression, rationalization, and emotional isolation. These traits align with the demands of an economic system that prioritizes efficiency, control, and rational calculation, fostering a workforce conditioned to meet its needs without resistance.

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On the borderline axis, individuals are shaped to exhibit emotional instability, impulsivity, and dependency. These traits are economically advantageous as they fuel excessive consumption. The instability of self-image characteristic of borderline structures ensures a perpetual search for validation through material possessions and experiences. Impulsivity and emotional dysregulation make individuals particularly vulnerable to marketing strategies designed to exploit their vulnerabilities, driving compulsive consumer behaviors that sustain capitalist economies.

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This hybrid subject—part neurotic and part borderline—is not an accidental byproduct but a deliberate creation of cybercapitalism. Digital technologies play a crucial role in this structuring process. Algorithmic systems, social media platforms, and digital marketing amplify neurotic and borderline tendencies, creating an environment where individuals are conditioned to embody these characteristics. Productivity tools and gamified work environments reinforce neurotic traits, glorifying hustle culture and the relentless pursuit of success. Meanwhile, social media and e-commerce platforms thrive on the emotional highs and dependency of borderline traits, ensuring users remain trapped in cycles of consumption.

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The economic unconscious under cybercapitalism operates to weaken symbolic structures and diminish individuals' capacities for mentalization and reflection. This weakening leaves individuals more susceptible to the direct influence of capitalist narratives, reducing their ability to critically evaluate their circumstances or resist exploitation. The decline in symbolization further exacerbates the instability and dependency that characterize the borderline axis, creating a feedback loop where capitalist systems simultaneously induce and exploit psychological fragmentation.

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The double bind created by this agenda ensures individuals remain perpetually fragmented. As workers, they are required to be rational and emotionally detached, adhering to the demands of productivity. As consumers, they are encouraged to be impulsive and emotionally unstable, driven by desires and insecurities. This contradiction is not a flaw but a calculated feature of the system, ensuring individuals are continuously cycling between these roles, each feeding the other and sustaining the broader capitalist structure.

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Pathologies, in this context, are not merely tolerated but actively commodified. Psychological suffering is transformed into a lucrative market, with industries ranging from wellness apps to pharmaceuticals profiting from the distress induced by capitalist systems. Moreover, pathologies themselves function as a mechanism of control. By fostering dependency and emotional instability, the system ensures individuals remain tethered to the very mechanisms that perpetuate their suffering, unable to break free from their dual roles as workers and consumers.

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This agenda reflects a profound exploitation of human psychology, turning both productivity and pathology into economic assets. However, recognizing these dynamics is a crucial step toward liberation. The deconstruction of this agenda requires a multidisciplinary approach, integrating psychoanalysis, sociology, and critical theory to unveil the mechanisms at play. Resistance must go beyond critique, envisioning alternative frameworks that prioritize autonomy, solidarity, and well-being over economic utility. Only by reclaiming psychological and social spaces from the grip of cybercapitalism can individuals hope to escape the dual bind of this insidious agenda.

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