Saving the Modern SoulTherapy, Emotions, and the Culture of Self-Help

“Contemporary sociologists document how therapeutic language overflowed the boundaries of professional psychology and was transformed into a general ‘therapy culture’ (Furedi, 2003; Illouz, 2008).”

“This can be seen, for example, in the writings of Eva Illouz (1997, 2007, 2008, 2012), who has extensively explored the origins of the current therapeutic-emotional style and how persons from all kinds of social backgrounds have appropriated the language of psychology.”

“Practices such as self-disclosure, expressing emotions, and listening with compassion to others’ feelings and concerns, constitute defining features of therapeutic culture that promote intimacies in interpersonal relationships (Gross and Simmons 2002; Giddens 1992; Illouz 2008).”

“Following Illouz (2008), we will refer to this as the ‘therapeutic discourse’.”

“In a therapeutic culture (Aubry & Travis, 2015; Illouz, 2008) where not only hearts are managed but selves are also outsourced (Hochschild, 1983, 2012), it is hardly Politics and Governance, 2021, Volume 9, Issue 3, Pages 227–236 227 surprising that citizens also turn to professional polit‐ ical…”

“The term has since been adapted by psychologists and psychotherapists who speak of the ‘empathic accuracy’ (Ickes, 1993) of their assessments of patients’ inner drives, and also by the corporate world in the form of human resources and business management guides that advise leaders to think in terms of the points of v…”

“For example, the rise of televised survivor stories via popular programmes such as Oprah has meant that ‘trauma talk’ has been appropriated in ways that privilege therapeutic and expert opinion over survivor political testimonial (Illouz 2003, 2008).”

“For instance, as noted above, in her account of contemporary therapeutic culture, Illouz (2008) does not explicitly define sharing, but uses the word when stating that ‘‘the therapeutic ideal increases the injunction to share all needs and feelings’’ (p. 227).”

“Seventh, social work has continued its infatuation with biomedical and institutional psychiatry and certain areas of clinical psychology (e.g., Illouz, 2008; Lubove, 1965).”

“She revealed how psychologists have taught us to distrust those who are unable or unwilling to look inside themselves as the supposed source of their own problems (Illouz 2008).”

“Clients can access online and print resources that guide them in making self-diagnoses or identifying the ‘best’ response to a diagnosis – be it a drug treatment, a particular form of therapy or a lifestyle change (Illouz, 2008).”

“…have extensively described the rise of those phenomena and shown how they do influence self conceptions (Rose 1996: 8, 1999: 84; Ward 2002) and introduce forms of social control based on therapeutic discourse (Polsky 1991; Cloud 1998; Nolan 1998; Tucker 1999; Furedi 2004; Illouz 2007, 2008).”

“This development puts the spotlight on psychotherapists as agents of societal change (Illouz 2008).1 Remarkably enough, however, the role of psychotherapists in these developments has so far been little analyzed.”

“In her chronicle of the rise of therapeutic discourse and practice throughout the twentieth century, Eva Illouz (2008) shows how therapy became widely institutionalized and diffused worldwide.”

“…of the emotional styles of men and women while the class distinction in emotional styles persists, so that it is the middle, rather than the working, classes who are most able to benefit from ‘emotional capital’ through engaging in emotions talk and displaying ‘emotional competence’ (Illouz, 2008).”

“Indeed, the manual’s use empties “the self of its communal and political content, replacing this content with a narcissistic self-concern” (Illouz, 2008, p. 2).”

“The therapeutic remains a dominant narrative shaping understandings of the ‘right’ amount of sharing online as offline (Illouz, 2008): too much information (‘tmi’) is problematised as leading to an over-exposed self.”

“…‘healthy’ and ‘sick’ that are so extensively deployed in the interviewees’ accounts are also accompanied by a strong emphasis on the liberal values that attend the discourse: autonomy, control, initiative, or what has been termed the self-made biography (Bellah et al. 1985; Illouz 2008; Rose 1996).”

“But love is also strongly aligned to therapeutic institutions – via marriage and relationship counselling – as well as being firmly integrated into the romantic temper of the times via cultural representations and artefacts (Bauman, 1991: 197–230; Giddens, 1992; Illouz, 1997, 2007, 2008).”

“Further, behind it lie what we might call deeper liminalities such as those implied in – and performed as – youth, personal ‘change’, drug use, historical transitions such as the rise of ‘therapeutic culture’ (Illouz 2008), and perhaps even modernity as such (Foucault 1986, Szakolczai 2009), not to mention research as…”

“…been identified by many as a broader cultural shift towards “therapy culture” that places an emphasis on emotional disclosures, selfhealing and narratives of suffering in the public realm (Aldridge 2001; Füredi 2004; Richards 2007; Illouz 2008; Nayar 2009; Yates 2011; Bainbridge and Yates 2014).”

“This set of values around ‘virtue’ and ‘character’ as attainable through disciplined training arguably resurface in 20th and 21st Century self-help culture and allied practices of ‘self-fashioning’ (see Illouz 2008).”

“Increasingly, child welfare and maternal quality of care are assessed in affective terms: the most important quality for future success in children has been assessed as ‘self-control’ (Tangney et al. 2004; Illouz 2008).”

“In the positive case, the user acquires “emotional capital”, and strengthens her intimate relationships (both are a distinct form of resources and a dimension of social inequality; Illouz, 2008, pp. 211, 214-215) via the joint use of the media and shared emotional experiences.”

“Moreover, Cushman (1995), like other scholars (Illouz 2008), portrayed how this self is maintained through discursive alliances (Shoshana 2014) with the psychological discourse and the neoliberal discourse.”

“…emotions and their discursive significance, and less on a profound definition of the actual object of investigation (e.g., Elias 1977; Hochschild 1985; Illouz 2007, 2008), or concentrated on single, distinct emotions without going into human affectivity in general, its constitution and actual mode…”

“I examine stories in order to capture how emerging adults negotiate and give meaning to the complicated process of reaching adulthood in contemporary U.S. American life (see Hollstein 2018; Mason-Schrock 1996; Plummer 1995; Wilkins 2012).”

“…was that consumer researchers also furnished society with a vocabulary and a ready-made theory construction which helped turn the ability to articulate oneself as an autonomous self into a social imperative (Ehrenberg, 2010: 35–44; Honneth, 2004; Illouz, 2008: 171–85; Moskowitz, 2001: 157–62).”

“Elaborating on this notion, Miller and Rose (2008), Illouz (2008) and Rose (1999a, 1999b)6, argue that the therapeutic movement has provided a 'set of ethical techniques for self-inspection and self-evaluation', centred around the buzzwords selfautonomy, self-actualization, empowerment, life-skills…”

“These critiques take on an added dimension when one considers how the language and practices of therapy find their way (via self-help media) to a receptive lay public keen to understand and address their concerns the ways mental health professionals do (Illouz, 2008; Rose, 1997).”

“Hence, the viewers of the series are introduced to one of the main characteristics of the therapeutic narrative: the building of causal connections with the past (Illouz, 2008).”

“…the 1920s, ideologies of management in the United States focused on the rationalization and standardization of the production process, in which “the individual would be eradicated and general rules and laws would be formalized and applied to the worker and to the work process” (Illouz 2008:67).”

“We extend recent efforts to understand the circumstances, personalities and relationships of the modern self in the specific context of highly-mobile people (Illouz, 2008).”

“These include, for example, anger (Kemper, 1990), excitement (Collins, 1990), shame (Scheff, 1998), embarrassment (Shott, 1979), and love (Illouz, 2008).”

“Leadbetter (2002) suggests that a theme emerging from the examination of the professional practice of educational psychologists is that ‘roles have always been defined by others rather than by themselves’ (p.”

“Therapeutic discourses in the US pop culture, clearly illustrated by The Oprah Winfrey Show, have also been criticised as a case through which the therapeutic ethos and its self-transformation ideology are widely consumed and diffused (Illouz 2008; Lofton 2006; Lowney 1999; Peck 2008).”

“…services, alongside psychoeducation, and the treatment of last resort: CBT. Unsurprisingly perhaps, sociologists and anthropologists have been concerned about the extent to which medicalized discourse is now part of the public’s lexicon and social organization (Illouz, 2008; Jutel, 2011).”