Social Pathology: The Great Social Isolation and Regressive Individuality

In recent decades, the citizen’s individual presence has become increasingly associated with phenomena of social pathology, with the most important indicators for this being suicide, socially determined depression, domestic violence, individual and group violence, and finally, as a result, suspension of the individual’s social presence. Individualization is both an important factor and a result of social relations and social structure transformation. According to most sociological theories—classical and modern—it is an important pillar of modern society, marking the transition from traditional society to one characterized by rationality and systematic institutional organization. More recently, however, individualization, individual presence, and action, while seemingly accelerated by the modern economic crisis, digital economy, and social networks, are associated with changes that challenge an integrated identity and a stable social position. At the same time, individualization deprives the individual of several opportunities to maintain functioning key close social relationships and social networks, creating a strong pressure to secure an ephemeral “digital authenticity” and ephemeral online experiences that create a constructed social world that most often contradicts the existing bonds of social capital and the reality of social alienation. This chapter describes the main features of this regression between dysfunctional individualization and its connection with cases and phenomena of cultural and social pathology.