FATIGUE, ENERGY, MODERNITY

Abstract Mental pathology and, more generally, psychic suffering, which is at the center of the mental health concern, appear as symptomatic of exhausted willpower, with the risk of falling into inaction. Numerous commentaries conceive them not only as issues of public health of utmost importance – a recurrent discourse since the 1990s –, but beyond to civilization or modernity evils. Thus, perceived at the end of the nineteenth century as a result of industrial work, fatigue is today considered as a sign of revolt of the individual against work, which doesn’t make sense anymore. This essay answers two questions: why is there a privileged connection between society and mental health? Why do mental health problems seem to be an elective material to talk about social evils? Mental health problems have become transversal concerns in the context of collective representations of normative autonomy because they highlight an emotional dimension which was marginal before. Such a society at the same time demands strong emotional self-control and a capacity to express one’s emotions. From this point of view, mental health represents a reconceptualization of health: through it, social relationships have entered the field of health.