Social Pathology: Fromm, Robbins, and Neoliberal Negative Communities

This paper overviews Brent Robbins’ theoretical work on war, colonialism, anesthetic culture, and contemporary psychological diagnostics as forms of social pathology. It argues that Robbins is philosophically and ethically indebted to the work of Erich Fromm, in particular his concepts of normative humanism, pathological normalcy, and socially patterned defects. Finally, this paper suggests that a horizon of relationality called neoliberal negative communities could and should be added to the social pathological ledger.