Middle Class and the “Disease of Absent Boundaries”

Abstract

The key to the understanding of the social existence of the middle class is its ethos, the world of imaginaries and necessary illusions closely linked to the interests of class reproduction. In the conditions of contemporary capitalism, this world becomes unstable and the vagueness of social opportunities and expectations throws middle class into the “disease of absent boundaries”, and oscillation between the pole of mania-like optimism and the pole of depressive confinement in a world of limited possibilities. This article is an analysis of relationship between middle class’ ethos and contemporary forms of psychic suffering. It is placed in the tradition of critical class analysis, uses the tools of psychoanalysis and references popular culture (TV series Enlightened) to better grasp the meaning of middle class’ affects.