The intimate body of agency

Abstract

Subjectivity, forms of subjectivation, domination, forms of resistance and other analogous concepts are at the heart of a vibrant debate, that runs through anthropology and social sciences since many years. This introduction aims to rethink some issues of the so-called Critical Theory and contribute to “regenerate” the extenuated notion of agency. At the same time, our analysis wants to introduce the four articles of the dossier Anuac Journal devoted to a panel of the conference Una teoria per capire, per agire, per impegnarsi. La lezione di Tullio Seppilli (A theory to understand, to act, and to be engaged. The Legacy of Tullio Seppilli), Perugia, held in 2018. The assumption of our notes is the very social nature of psychism’s forms and individual experience, showing how critical medical anthropology can dismantle the neoliberal vocabulary of terms such as “choice”, “change”, “opportunity”, as well as the late capitalist rhetoric, where “agency” only translates the art of survival, the violence of adaptation, and the new expressions of subjugation.