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This paper sets forward a theory enabling us to rethink the ways in which individual and social categories are articulated - contemporary forms of the social bond are characterised by a lack of response on the individual and group level, thus triggering disorders in terms of symbolisation which go on to generate ‘subjectless processes.’Current socio-cultural contexts might thus be said to influence the development of psychical structures in a way which leads individuals to increasingly resort to acting out, thereby short-circuiting thought. The author argues that these are defence mechanisms involving a withdrawal of subjectivity, the stakes of which involve no longer feeling or suffering, in turn enabling the individual to give up thinking.