From the religion of work to the madness

Abstract

Starting from an apocryphal quote by Sigmund Freud about work and mental health, we carry out a historical investigation that leads from the creation of the first convents in the 4th century AD, to the works of the German psychiatrist Hubertus Tellenbach. Curiously, following this common thread, we find the notion of form-of-life that the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben exploits in his work on monasticism, and above all, and in an unexpected way, the central work of the German sociologist Max Weber The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism that brings together religion and economic success at a high subjective cost. Focused in this way, they raise a figure of great frequency in the most contemporary clinic: the melancholic type of Tellenbach as one of the faces of the spirit of our time.