Affect, Alienation, and Politics in Therapeutic Culture

Affect, Alienation, and Politics in Therapeutic Culture PDF Author: Suvi Salmenniemi
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031105729
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
This book contributes to research on therapeutic culture by drawing on longstanding ethnographic work and by offering a new theoretical reading of therapeutic culture in today's society. It suggests that the therapeutic field serves as a key site in which a number of contradictions of capitalism are confronted and lived out. It shows that therapeutic engagements are inherently ambivalent and contradictory, as they can be articulated and engaged with in many different ways and harnessed for diverse, and often contradictory, political projects. The book takes issue with the interpretation of therapeutic culture as merely individualising, depoliticizing and working in congruence with neoliberalism, and shows that therapeutic engagements may also open up a space for contestation and critique of neoliberal capitalism, animate collective action for social change and articulate alternative forms of life and subjectivities. The book will speak to a wide variety of audiences in the social sciences and will be of particular interest to those working in the fields of sociology, anthropology, critical psychology, cultural studies, gender studies, and critical social theory.

Affect, Alienation, and Politics in Therapeutic Culture

Affect, Alienation, and Politics in Therapeutic Culture PDF Author: Suvi Salmenniemi
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031105729
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 226

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book contributes to research on therapeutic culture by drawing on longstanding ethnographic work and by offering a new theoretical reading of therapeutic culture in today's society. It suggests that the therapeutic field serves as a key site in which a number of contradictions of capitalism are confronted and lived out. It shows that therapeutic engagements are inherently ambivalent and contradictory, as they can be articulated and engaged with in many different ways and harnessed for diverse, and often contradictory, political projects. The book takes issue with the interpretation of therapeutic culture as merely individualising, depoliticizing and working in congruence with neoliberalism, and shows that therapeutic engagements may also open up a space for contestation and critique of neoliberal capitalism, animate collective action for social change and articulate alternative forms of life and subjectivities. The book will speak to a wide variety of audiences in the social sciences and will be of particular interest to those working in the fields of sociology, anthropology, critical psychology, cultural studies, gender studies, and critical social theory.

Therapeutic Culture

Therapeutic Culture PDF Author: Donileen Loseke
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351472151
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 315

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Book Description
For nearly half a century, social scientists have made claims that there is a "therapeutic ethos" with extensive influence upon numerous aspects of American society. In Therapeutic Culture, twelve authors address the implications of this ethos and its effects on a wide range of social institutions, extending from the family to schools, and operating in religious behavior and within the legal system. Has there been, as the sociological theorist Philip Rieff argued in 1966, a "triumph of the therapeutic?" If so, in what kinds of institutions has it been most pervasive? At the same time, what aspects of modern culture has it replaced or defeated? Therapeutic Culture addresses these questions, and raises others. Part 1 of this volume examines the emergence of the idea of "authenticity" as it defines the manipulation of emotions and behavior both in the United States and Great Britain. Contributors include Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn, Frank Furedi, Jonathan B. Imber, and Alan Woolfolk. Part 2 illustrates specific cases of the effects of therapeutic culture within institutions, including courts, schools, religious communities, and the "virtual community" of the Internet. Contributors include James L. Nolan, Jr., John Steadman Rice, Felicia Wu Song, and James Tucker. Part 3 extends the analyses of specific social institutions to the broader consequences that have resulted as a therapeutic ethos has taken root in contemporary life. Contributors include Digby Anderson, Ellen Herman, and James Davison Hunter. Part 4 is devoted to a previously unpublished essay by Philip Rieff whose significant influence can be seen in many of the contributions. Rieff revisits the highly controversial confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas in 1991 and offers ample evidence of the therapeutic uses of politics as well as the political manipulations available within a therapeutic culture to provide a fitting conclusion. This volume establishes a benchmark for furthe

Control and Consolation in American Culture and Politics

Control and Consolation in American Culture and Politics PDF Author: Dana Cloud
Publisher: SAGE Publications
ISBN: 1506338739
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
What are the consequences in American society when social and political activism is replaced by pursuit of personal, psychological change? How does such a shift happen? Where is it visible? In wide-ranging case studies, Control and Consolation in American Culture and Politics points out this change in American culture and attributes it to the "rhetoric of therapy." This rhetoric is defined as a pervasive cultural discourse that applies psychotherapyÆs lexiconùthe constructive language of healing, coping, adaptation, and restoration of a previously existing orderùto social and political conflict. The purpose of this therapeutic discourse is to encourage people to focus on themselves and their private lives rather than to attempt to reform flawed systems of social and political power. Author Dana L. Cloud focuses on the therapeutic discourse that emerged after the Vietnam War and links its rise to specific political and economic interests. The critical case studies describe in detail not only what the therapeutic style looks like, but how and why therapeutic discourses are persuasive. These studies include: the rhetoric of "family values"; media coverage of "support groups" during the Persian Gulf War; Gloria SteinenÆs Revolution from Within; the film Thelma and Louise; and literature of the New Age Movement. Cloud concludes with a chapter urging resistance to the therapeutic persuasion she describes envisioning in its place engaged public politics. At once unique and engaging, Control and Consolation in American Culture and Politics is a must read for academics and students interested in communication studies, cultural studies, sociology, political science, and media studies.

Creative Social Policy

Creative Social Policy PDF Author: Johannes Kananen
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1035321408
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
Innovative and forward-thinking in its approach, this book advocates for the liberation of people’s creative potential through the systematic transformation of work and capital. Providing a detailed account and analysis of current social policy, Johannes Kananen envisions an emancipatory societal development that prioritises fulfilling human need as opposed to the accumulation of private capital.

The Rise of Mental Vulnerability at Work

The Rise of Mental Vulnerability at Work PDF Author: Ari Väänänen
Publisher: Policy Press
ISBN: 1447359453
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
Since the 1960s, a major mental health crisis has emerged among Western working populations. By analysing the development of various occupational cultures, this book captures the history of mental vulnerability in working life. Through a study spanning several decades, the book develops a new understanding of how mental vulnerability has evolved through changes to our working lives and socio-cultural being.

The Therapeutic Turn

The Therapeutic Turn PDF Author: Ole Jacob Madsen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317699912
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 205

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Book Description
In what ways has psychology become more influential in Western society? In this book author Ole Jacob Madsen considers the notion of a ‘Therapeutic Turn’ in Western culture – the tendency for psychology to permeate ever new spheres within society. The Therapeutic Turn evaluates the increasing prevalence of psychology in several areas of Western society: Western consumer culture, contemporary Christianity, self-help, sport and politics. Madsen proposes that there are problematic aspects to this development which are seldom recognised due to a widely held assumption that ‘the more psychology, the better for everyone’. A recurring concern with psychological solutions is that they often provide individual solutions to structural problems. As a result, psychologists may be inadvertently increasing the burden on the shoulders of the people they are meant to help and, at the same time, our capacity to understand individual suffering in the light of major historical and political changes in society is becoming increasingly clouded. The Therapeutic Turn presents an accessible and engaging critique of the influence of psychology within Western society. It will appeal to a broad audience of students, academics and lay readers interested in this aspect of modernity and contemporary society, and it will also be of great interest to practitioners and therapists.

Alienation and Affect

Alienation and Affect PDF Author: Warren D. TenHouten
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317678524
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
Alienation has objective, social-structural determinants, yet is experienced subjectively as a psychological state involving both emotion and cognition. Part I considers conceptualizations of alienation and affect in historical context, emphasizing Rousseau, Hegel, Marx, Simmel, and Weber. Part II develops a theory of the affective bases of Seeman’s original five varieties of alienation – normlessness, meaninglessness, self-estrangement, cultural estrangement, and powerlessness. The book argues that both normlessness and cultural estrangement manifest in two distinct forms and involve distinct emotions. Thus it develops the affective bases of seven distinct varieties of alienation. This work synthesizes classical and contemporary alienation theory and the sociology of emotions. It contributes to political sociology, and finds application in social psychiatry and related health and social-service fields that treat traumatized and highly alienated individuals.

Alienation and Participation in Culture

Alienation and Participation in Culture PDF Author: Dimitrij Rupel
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Alienation (Social psychology)
Languages : en
Pages : 163

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Book Description


Alienation, Society, and the Individual

Alienation, Society, and the Individual PDF Author: R. Felix Geyer
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
ISBN: 9781412816762
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
The concept of alienation is an umbrella concept that includes powerlessness, meaninglessness, social isolation, cultural estrangement, and self-estrangement. For researchers, the study of alienation is a three-fold task: first, understanding the discrepancy between individual values and actions and general living and working conditions; second, analyzing the overt and latent forms of oppression in social structures; third, accounting for social circumstances that hinder or facilitate individual or collective action against those alienating structures. Alienation, Society, and the Individual provides a timely and broadly representative overview of the most recent developments in alienation research and theory. Alienation, Society, and the Individual makes it clear that alienation research has come of age. Further theoretical developments remain important and as demonstrated In this volume, which revives theoretical debate so as to reformulate classical concepts in view of developments in modern society, the concept of alienation is now increasingly applied to empirical research in a variety of fields. Included here are theory driven evaluations of empirical research on migrant workers, as well as comparative studies on differing liberation ideologies in South Africa. This volume reflects the effects of political developments in Eastern Europe on Marxist alienation theory. While Marxist theory remains important, it is no longer directed exclusively toward criticism of capitalist society. New applications include a critique of Eastern European state socialism, analysis of consumer, rather than capitalist society, and uncommon examples of empirical research carried out within a Marxist framework. The book concludes with a chapter that evaluates recent theoretical and methodological innovations and sets priorities for future research. Alienation, Society, and the Individual offers an unusual combination of theory and practice that make it a state-of-the-art volume. It will be read by sociologists, political scientists, social psychologists, philosophers, and anthropologists.

From Morality to Mental Health

From Morality to Mental Health PDF Author: Mike W. Martin
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195304713
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
Morality and mental health are now inseparably linked in our view of character. Alcoholics are sick, yet they are punished for drunk driving. Drug addicts are criminals, but their punishment can be court ordered therapy. The line between character flaws and personality disorders has become fuzzy, with even the seven deadly sins seen as mental disorders. In addition to pathologizing wrong-doing, we also psychologize virtue; self-respect becomes self-esteem, integrity becomes psychological integration, and responsibility becomes maturity. Moral advice is now sought primarily from psychologists and therapists rather than philosophers or theologians.In this wide-ranging, accessible book, Mike W. Martin asks: are we replacing morality with therapy, in potentially confused and dangerous ways, or are we creatively integrating morality and mental health? According to him, it's a little bit of both. He surveys the ways in which morality and mental health are related, touching on practical concerns like love and work, self-respect and self-fulfillment, guilt and depression, crime and violence, and addictions. Terming this integrative development "the therapeutic trend in ethics," Martin uses examples from popular culture, various moral controversies, and draws on a line of thought that includes Plato, the Stoics, Freud, Nietzsche, and contemporary psychotherapeutic theories. Martin develops some interesting conclusions, among them that sound morality is indeed healthy, and that moral values are inevitably embedded in our conceptions of mental health. In the end, he shows how both morality and mental health are inextricably intertwined in our pursuit of a meaningful life. This book will be of interest to philosophers, psychologists, psychiatrists, and sociologists, as well as the general reader.