Neoliberalismo, psicopolítica e controle social em Byung-Chul Han

Abstract

The present study approaches the concept of psychopolitics, in the terms in which it was conceived by the South Korean philosopher Byung-Chul Han, as being an advance or a turning point in the concept of biopolitics developed by Michel Foucault, now incident not only on the bodies of individuals and the population as a whole, but about psychic processes, knowing and influencing human behavior, as well as predicting individual and collective behaviors, through massive data collection and processing. Starting from the categories worked by the author throughout his work, such as positivity, transparency and subjectivity focused on performance, we sought to identify the phenomena that sustain psychopolitics. After identifying the fundamentals, we began to explore and analyze the instruments of control, or technologies of control as the author calls it, used in the exercise of this form of power characteristic of the neoliberal regime, especially after the Digital Revolution, a period in which, since therefore, these technologies have been intensified and expanded in use and capacity. Finally, a technical and philosophical analysis is developed regarding the actual techniques of the technologies used in and for the exercise of psychopolitical power, such as big data, the internet of things and algorithms, as well as the ideology that legitimizes the rampant and growing use of these technologies, dataism. Thus, the research aims to carry out a descriptive analysis of social criticism developed by Byung-Chul Han and, specifically, on the concept of psychopolitics. The research developed affects the line of research “State and Theories of Justice” for developing and analyzing the relations between the State, private companies and the subjects from the social criticism, especially the technologies of control, carried out in the work of the studied author.