This paper commemorates the work of Carlo Strenger, a prolific writer and unparalleled critic of contemporary culture, with a focus on his thinking concerning the role of cultural changes, and globalization in particular, on the development of what he termed the fear of insignificance. We relate Strenger's thinking in this regard to socioevolutionary and developmental psychopathology approaches concerning the role of culture in engendering a sense of agency and selfhood. These views illustrate our own shift in thinking concerning the role of psychological and sociocultural factors in the development and course of psychopathology. The implications of these views for the role of culture in psychoanalytic theory and practice are discussed.