THE SUBVERSION OF GROUP IDENTITY IN LIQUID MODERNITY AND ITS CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS

Abstract

This article proposes a critical analysis of the contemporary distortion of Social Identity Theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979), arguing that the mechanism of group identification has been progressively captured by the hyperindividualistic logic of current society. Rather than fulfilling its original function of building collective bonds and regulating social behavior, group identity now operates as an instrument of narcissistic self-affirmation. To name the subjective consequences of this process, the authors propose the concept of social death — a more sophisticated and subversive mutation of intellectual death, in which the subject maintains the appearance of cognitive life while silently losing the capacity to be genuinely affected by the other. Articulating this diagnosis with the concepts of liquid modernity (Bauman, 2001), the culture of narcissism (Lasch, 1979), and cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957), the article examines the consequences of this phenomenon for psychic and social cohesion, discussing its implications for clinical practice in psychology.