Cynthia Fleury – författare

The greatest threat to modern democracy comes from within and it has a name: resentment.  Stemming from feelings of inferiority in relation to others, resentment is a diffuse and obsessive loathing, coupled with delusions of victimhood, which clouds one’s judgment and perspective, so that an individual’s capacity to act and heal is paralyzed. Without the ability to heal, resentment can give rise to violent impulses, to the rejection of the rule of law, the proliferation of conspiracy theories, and the urge to use violent means to try to regain control of one’s life.   As individuals and as societies, we face the same challenge: how to diagnose resentment and its dark forces, and how to resist the temptation to allow it to become the motor of our individual and collective histories.This bestselling and highly original account of the psychic forces shaping modern societies will be of great interest to anyone concerned about the crisis of democracy today and what we can do to address it.

The greatest threat to modern democracy comes from within and it has a name: resentment.  Stemming from feelings of inferiority in relation to others, resentment is a diffuse and obsessive loathing, coupled with delusions of victimhood, which clouds one’s judgment and perspective, so that an individual’s capacity to act and heal is paralyzed. Without the ability to heal, resentment can give rise to violent impulses, to the rejection of the rule of law, the proliferation of conspiracy theories, and the urge to use violent means to try to regain control of one’s life.   As individuals and as societies, we face the same challenge: how to diagnose resentment and its dark forces, and how to resist the temptation to allow it to become the motor of our individual and collective histories.This bestselling and highly original account of the psychic forces shaping modern societies will be of great interest to anyone concerned about the crisis of democracy today and what we can do to address it.

The greatest threat to modern democracy comes from within and it has a name: resentment.  Stemming from feelings of inferiority in relation to others, resentment is a diffuse and obsessive loathing, coupled with delusions of victimhood, which clouds one’s judgment and perspective, so that an individual’s capacity to act and heal is paralyzed. Without the ability to heal, resentment can give rise to violent impulses, to the rejection of the rule of law, the proliferation of conspiracy theories, and the urge to use violent means to try to regain control of one’s life.   

As individuals and as societies, we face the same challenge: how to diagnose resentment and its dark forces, and how to resist the temptation to allow it to become the motor of our individual and collective histories.

This bestselling and highly original account of the psychic forces shaping modern societies will be of great interest to anyone concerned about the crisis of democracy today and what we can do to address it.

Puede que casi todos, alguna vez, nos hayamos sentido víctimas de una situación injusta y hayamos rumiado fantasías de venganza, de reparación. Que hayamos sentido que el mundo conspira contra nosotros, que no hemos sido integrados o reconocidos como merecíamos, sin poder hacer nada contra eso. Pero ¿qué pasa, en el sujeto y en la sociedad, cuando nos instalamos a vivir en ese pozo de odio, celos, envidia y humillación que nos envenena el alma, y nos desresponsabilizamos por completo de nuestra suerte porque la culpa está afuera? ¿Qué pasa cuando la amargura, inevitable en sociedades como las nuestras –que justifican las desigualdades estructurales con la mascarada de la meritocracia–, no encuentra una vía para convertirse en otra cosa y nos paraliza? ¿Cómo hacer para sepultar la amargura y evitar la gangrena del resentimiento, una pulsión que puede habilitar la violencia al punto de amenazar la vida democrática?En este ensayo deslumbrante, la psicoanalista y filósofa Cynthia Fleury nos cuenta las raíces psíquicas de esa caída en el resentimiento tanto individual como colectivo, nos ayuda a entender cómo funciona sobre una base de delirios persecutorios y complotistas, por qué es tan difícil de revertir y a la vez no debe ser minimizado en su capacidad de daño. A partir de su experiencia como analista, explica qué modos podrían ensayarse para sacar a las personas de la inercia mortífera y mostrarles el camino de una vida posible, abierta. Lectora apasionada de Dostoievski y Rilke, Adorno y Fanon, Freud y Winnicott, Nietzsche y Cioran, y a la vez comprometida con el padecimiento que escucha en sus pacientes, Cynthia Fleury nos invita a sumergirnos en el bajofondo de la vida psíquica y a vislumbrar los antídotos con que transformar el desborde del resentimiento para "pasar a otra cosa": allí están los vínculos de amor o amistad, los espacios del cuidado, la militancia, la escritura, los proyectos de trabajo y de lucha, la herramienta del humor.Hoy, cuando todo parece preparado para la llegada de una nueva partitura retrógrada y cuando florecen líderes capaces de interpelar las pasiones más tristes, este libro se vuelve imprescindible e inmensamente iluminador.