The Rise of the Therapeutic Society: Psychological Knowledge & the Contradictions of Cultural Change

The Rise of the Therapeutic Society: Psychological Knowledge & the Contradictions of Cultural Change
ISBN-10
0990693988
ISBN-13
9780990693987
Category
Psychology
Pages
370
Language
English
Published
2015-02-25
Publisher
New Acdemia+ORM
Author
Katie Wright

Description

An examination of the Western world’s contemporary fascination with psychological life, and the historical developments that fostered it. In this book, sociologist Katie Wright traces the ascendancy of therapeutic culture, from nineteenth-century concerns about nervousness, to the growth of psychology, the diffusion of an analytic attitude, and the spread of therapy and counseling, using Australia as a focal point. Wright’s analysis, which draws on social theory, cultural history, and interviews with therapists and people in therapy, calls into question the pessimism that pervades many accounts of the therapeutic turn and provides an alternative assessment of its ramifications for social, political, and personal life in the globalized West. Special Commendation, TASA Raewyn Connell Prize

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