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“Discontent in society” is less a point of departure than a problem that needs to be elaborated and clarified. The author suggests replacing the individualistic idea that society causes psychic suffering with the sociological idea that psychic suffering is today an obligatory or expected way of expressing social suffering. This leads him to the hypothesis that in the area of mental health, we are witnessing a generalization of the use of personal idioms to give form to and resolve conflicts in social relations. These language games consist of making a connection between personal unhappiness and disrupted social relations using the yardstick of psychic suffering, thus bringing together individual suffering and shared suffering. From there, he develops the hypothesis that a French-style equality crisis is being played out in the shadows of the malaise. That is, a crisis of an equality that is conceived essentially in terms of protection. This protection in terms of status is based on the model of public functioning. However, equality today, and thus the struggle against social inequality, is played out in terms of capacity.