Adolescer em tempos de TikTok: o discurso capitalista e a sublimação

Abstract

This dissertation investigates, through the lens of Lacanian psychoanalytic theory, adolescents’ use of TikTok, articulating core concepts such as scopic jouissance, the capitalist discourse, and sublimation. It begins with the observation that, within the context of contemporary society marked by the scopic imperative, the adolescent subject is particularly captured—especially through the use of the TikTok platform— given that they are undergoing a logical moment in which their identity is suspended, a passage characterized by a process of subjective and drive-related reorganization. In light of this, a central hypothesis is proposed: TikTok use can be understood as one of the possible responses to the malaise inherent to adolescence—a response that may be inscribed either through the path of alienation, in alignment with the capitalist discourse, or through the path of separation, as it operates within the logic of sublimation. Drawing on Lacan’s theory of the four discourses, the analysis explores how the capitalist discourse is sustained by a refusal of lack and a relentless production of commodities—via "lathouses"—to veil it. In contrast, the hysteric and analyst discourses open the possibility for the emergence of the desiring subject. From this perspective, sublimation can be conceived as a form of separation: a mode of inscription that does not aim to fill the void characteristic of adolescence, but rather elevates it to the dignity of the Thing (la Chose). Through the analysis of selected TikTok videos, this study examines creative and artistic expressions of youth as potential forms of subversion. These productions, rather than merely submitting to the imperatives of visibility and entertainment typical of the platform, serve as contours of the Real—whose incidence becomes heightened in adolescence—thus opening gaps through which the adolescent may articulate a well-said ("bien-dire"). It is inferred that adolescents use TikTok in an ambivalent manner: while they may be captured by the alienating logic of the capitalist discourse, they also find in the platform a potential space for productions that stage lack, thereby configuring a form of social bond sustained by the operation of sublimation