The notion of ‘social pathology’ and its sociological analysis model. Notes for its reconstruction and operationalization

Abstract

The author addresses the notion of ‘social pathology’ that proliferates within the Frankfurt School with the aim of reconstruction of its underlying sociological analysis model and advance some notes for its operationalization. For this purpose, the paper goes through the history of the notion of ‘social patho-logy’ and points out some of its limitations (1-2); then formally reconstructs its underlying analysis model, namely, the one that aims to identify blockages of individual autonomy which are promoted by social structures by involuntarily undoing experimental prerequisites of self-reflection (3). As a corollary to such reconstruction, the article advances notes to address the singular case of social acceleration from the perspective of social pathologies (4-6).