ABSTRACT
This article argues that fanaticism, far from designating only some dangerous and incomprehensible otherness, is also the fundamental basis of Western contemporary subjectivity. Fanaticism is defined as i) adherence to an irrational dogma; ii) involving the totality of the subject’s existence; iii) the deployment of violence against this subject. Starting from Max Weber’s thesis that the North American “sect”, as well as more generally very ascetic forms of Calvinism, underlie the modern capitalist form of life, two ideal-types are added to those proposed by Weber: (1) “mysticism”, which designates the modes of belief where access to the divine is made directly and emotionally and which has a universal ambition, (2) and “management”, which brings together the two preceding ideal-types, to qualify the globalized and theological modes of subjectivity in the Western contemporary world. A “psycho-theological” method is applied here and it is demonstrated that theological dogmas have deep psychological and social resonances.
