Abstract
The relation between the individual’s powers of agency and the conditioning powers of society constitutes not only a theoretical issue for the social sciences, but also an existential problem that imposes itself, in practice, upon every human being. Based on this premise, the article applies to the subjectivism/objectivism dichotomy in social theory a thesis from psychopathological phenomenology, i.e., the idea that some forms of mental illness consist in existentially lived intellectual attitudes. Within schizophrenic “objectivism”, individuals experience themselves as the “puppets” of hyper-deterministic theories. Psychotic “subjectivism” involves, on the other hand, a delusional inflation of one’s sense of control over the world that epitomizes the “heroically” voluntaristic views of human agency. As part of a research program in the “heuristics of insanity”, the article explores, therefore, the relevance of social theory to the phenomenology of psychopathology and vice-versa.
Keywords:
Social theory; Schizophrenia; Phenomenology; Objectivism; Subjectivism