O sujeito de desempenho no neoliberalismo: paradoxo da liberdade e autoexploração na sociedade contemporânea

Abstract

This work examines how the subject of performance is constituted in the neoliberal context and the paradox between autonomy and self-exploitation in contemporary society. The investigation begins with the premise that neoliberalism, by transferring external control to the self-management of the individual, transforms the subject into an entrepreneur of themselves, fully responsible for their successes and failures. The study aims to investigate how neoliberal discourse transforms the lives of workers, producing new forms of subjective domination under the discourse of freedom, driving self-exploitation and a logic of exacerbated performance. The methodology employed is qualitative and exploratory in nature, grounded in authors such as Byung-Chul Han, Dardot & Laval, Jonathan Crary, and Pascal Chabot, allowing for a critical analysis of the transformations of work, productivity, and subjectivity. The research concludes that the contemporary subject is driven by the constant demand for productivity and by neoliberal rationality. Therefore, they internalize forms of control and simultaneously become exploiters and exploited of themselves. Their freedom is manipulated in a logic of excellence and competitiveness, imprisoning the individual in a logic of constant performance. In this process, the subject reaches their maximum limit and collapses, revealing the illusory nature of freedom in neoliberal society.