Cosmetic psychopharmacology, inauthentic experiences, and the instrumentalization of human faculties: Beyond post-emotional society

Abstract

This chapter explores the phenomenon of inauthentic experiences as a negative consequence of the new trends in cosmetic psychopharmacology, concluding that they are also the psychological manifestation of the tension, in late modernity, between two rival versions for a moral paradigm- Classic and Modern-and in which transition, rationality, affectivity, and will are being progressively and consecutively instrumentalized. Moreover, it is argued that this post-emotional scenario poses a threat to mental stability as well as social cohesion. The second general objective of this chapter is analyzing three types of psychological complaints by patients about inauthenticity-those related to the artificial origin of emotions, to the physical nature of its content, and to its episodic coherence; on the other hand, I present and compare three rival contemporary solutions to the problem of inauthenticity: The psychological, the organic, and the narrative.