Boredom and inauthenticity in the present day: a psychoanalytic and social analysis

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss the issue of boredom, taking in account that the contemporary society, marked by inhuman exploitation of work, suppression of subjectivity and authenticity, emptiness, lack of references and bond weaknesses, have produced what we define as “pathologies of the emptiness”. To approach this issue, the author conducted a clinical vignette in which was narrated a case that boredom, among other manifestations, presented constantly and, right after, reflections were woven in the light of historical cultural theory and psychoanalysis was concluded that boredom acquires an ambivalent character both as a defense that, when it manifests itself, communicates the movement of the search for oneself, and denounces the suffering of the people by living in an impoverished, mechanized daily life, filled with tasks and stimuli. It is indispensable to evolve this theme, through not only the social perspective but also the clinical, which faces intricate suffering boundaries in many occasions, demanding a flexible conduction by the psychologist.