Affective economy of neoliberalism: Social trajectories of anger

This qualitative research is designed to critically question the affective subjectivities produced in neoliberal society, specifically in the discourse of anger. Therefore, the purpose has been to understand how the production of angry subjectivities integrates with the forms of social adaptation that neoliberal rationality offers to the individual. For this purpose; the discourse of anger has been analyzed and the circulation of angry subjectivities produced through this discourse has been defined as the economy of anger. The data show that categorized as a negative emotion; anger is commonly accepted as an uncivilized and agressive emotion which contains potential of violence. It is accepted as the opposite of emotional balance which is a key concept in neoliberal society and thought to threaten not only mental health but also physical health. Therefore anger is accepted as an emotion that needs to be controlled and regulated by the individual and anger management is included in neoliberal self-management skills. Anger management is a discourse in which neoliberal angry subjectivities are produced through the themes of self-awareness, cost-benefit analysis, and body control. It integrates with the neoliberal rationality, which demands the management of emotions through the mind, and in a macrocosm encouraging positive emotions, anger is an affective territory that can be settled only if beneficial to the individual. The research draws attention to the fact that angry subjectivities produced within this framework can be a dynamic that can produce authority-domination relations, as well absorbing social problems by accepting them as individual anger control problems.