INTERNALIZED HOMOPHOBIA: LONELINESS AND THE CONSTITUTION OF THE SELF IN LIQUID MODERNITY

Abstract

Internalized homophobia refers to the process through which LGBTQIA+ individuals assimilate stigmatizing heteronormative values, beliefs, and norms, eventually directing them against themselves. In the contemporary context, marked by the fluidity of human relationships, the precarization of social bonds, and the intensification of loneliness, this phenomenon assumes new subjective, affective, and social configurations.The present study aims to analyze how internalized homophobia influences the experience of loneliness and the processes of self-constitution among LGBTQIA+ individuals within the context of liquid modernity. To this end, it proposes a theoretical articulation between psychoanalysis, sociology, and critical studies of sexuality, drawing on the contributions of Winnicott, Foucault, Butler, and Goffman.This is a qualitative, theoretical-reflective study that seeks to understand how power dispositifs, mechanisms of stigmatization, and contemporary relational dynamics affect the constitution of the self, the experience of desire, and modes of social belonging.The theoretical frameworks employed indicate that internalized homophobia, far from being restricted to an intrapsychic phenomenon, is configured as a relational and historically situated process. It is concluded that this phenomenon is intensified by the instability of social bonds and the weakening of support networks, reinforcing the need to understand it beyond the individual level, in articulation with contemporary social and cultural conditions.