Social Harm and its Relationship to Human Subjectivity

This chapter is concerned with the relativisation of social harm and considers what everyday people are actually doing and trying to accomplish when identifying social harms. It is argued that we are always doing at least one of four things. Firstly, we are attempting to identify and ward off the most immediate mortal and existential threats of death, pain, and suffering. Secondly, we are often protecting the self and one's sense of identity, meaning, and place in the world. Thirdly, and related to the two above, we are imagining and desiring some ultimate ‘good’ or ideal state of things in the future and identifying that which threatens this ideal. Fourthly, we are seeking a condition of homeostasis, calm, and security. Drawing on theoretical psychoanalysis, the chapter explores how each of these things are intimately connected to deep drives, anxieties, and unconscious psychic processes, and the extent to which these drives are responsible for the tendency to relativise various harms.