It seems that overnight we wake up in a world that creates exclusions to sell inclusions.
Could it be that the worse you feel compared to the people around you, the greater the chances you will seek to conform to the current standard and achieve the desired recognition? Better grades, a slimmer body, fair skin, whiter teeth, popularity, straight hair, a new car every year… There are many reports that this search is endless because it is impossible to be and do everything that others expect of us, at all times, without generating exhaustion and suffering, sometimes unbearable.
The philosopher Byung-Chul Han created the concept "subject of performance" to define people in our society, exhausted in the eternal search for the ideal self, at war with themselves, immersed in a crisis, unable to find sufficient gratification in what they are, and what they produce.
The second leading cause of death among young people aged 15 to 29 in Brazil is suicide. According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), our country has the highest number of cases of anxiety disorder, followed by depressive disorders. The Brazilian specialist Marília Veronese explains: "diseases are biopsychosocial, they have a biological factor that is a predisposition, and they have a social factor that are the relationships we establish with our lives, our surroundings, our community."
Philosopher Han writes about the coercion of performing that forces everyone in our society to work, study and produce more and more, which prevents us from reaching the point of rest, of the accomplished goal, because there is always a new objective, always a new destination, a first place to be achieved, infinitely, hence the name performance subjects of performance in a burnout society.
Alicia's testimony to the USP newspaper illustrates this scenario: “For me, a woman needed to have breasts; I thought it was something I had to follow," reported a girl who asked her mother for plastic surgery as a birthday present. Moved by the desire to adapt their lives and bodies to the current standard of femininity, young people seek surgical intervention to minimize the suffering caused by what they perceive to be out of the norm. However, even after the operation, many reveal that they perceive that discomfort, pain, and dissatisfaction with their image persist.
September is the month dedicated to suicide prevention around the world and in Brazil; since 2014, the Association of Psychiatry (ABP), in partnership with the Federal Council of Medicine (CFM), has been responsible for the Yellow September campaign that this year reminds everyone that life is still the best choice.
Fighting prejudice and misinformation in the field of mental health is vital. Thinking about the social urge that demands from each of us more than we feel capable of offering throughout our lives is perhaps an essential first step.
Vanessa Meirelles
Psychopedagogue Researcher of Human Identity
Master in Social Psychology from PUC São Paulo
Member of the Brazilian Association of Psychopedagogy - ABPp 722
References:
https://repositorio.pucsp.br/jspui/handle/handle/26104
https://www.brasildefators.com.br/2020/09/10/suicidio-esta-vinculado-a-um-intenso-sofrimento-psiquico-que-precisa-de-cuidados
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