The Rise of the Therapeutic Society: Psychological Knowledge & the Contradictions of Cultural Change. Katie Wright
The Rise of the Therapeutic Society: Psychological Knowledge & the Contradictions of Cultural Change
has had uneven and contradictory consequences. While Rieff's Freudian-inflected account found the breakdown of paternal authority particularly troubling, an alternate view of psychosocial development and gender relations invites a different reading. I do not approach this, however, in the way that has come to characterize feminist readings of both therapy and therapeutic culture—that is, to interpret the elaboration of the "psy-complex" as the social control of women, both through professional intervention into private life and normative constructions of femininity.
Rather, with an eye to elucidating the multiple ways in which gender and therapeutic culture intersect—and the largely overlooked issues around gender and suffering—I examine the emergence of a discursive space for the recognition of emotional aspects of life that have traditionally been regarded, and dismissed, as feminine. A somewhat different picture emerges when the weakening of cultural authority is understood as part of a reconfiguration of the cultural-symbolic logic of gender, a reconfiguration that involves shifts in the demarcation of public and private life, in normative prescriptions of masculinity and femininity, and in levels of social acceptability regarding suffering. The opening up of the private, the legitimizing of the emotional realm, and the speaking of the hitherto unspeakable, I argue, has engendered more complex consequences—particularly for women and marginalized groups—than dominant accounts have thus far suggested.8
The interpretive context for my analysis of the therapeutic society is elaborated in Chapter One, which provides a critical overview of the main strands in the history of debates about the therapeutic, and a discussion of the theoretical issues pertinent to my analysis. From conservative sociological critiques of moral decline to concerns about capitalist control, analyses of disciplinary discourses, and feminist objections to therapy, I question assumptions implicit in dominant approaches, notably those concerning the importance of traditional authority, the sanctity of private life, and the rise of the confessional. While theorization of the therapeutic over the last four decades has offered valuable insights into this cultural turn, their limitations became apparent in view of a critical reading of gender and authority. By examining presuppositions of the individual and the social that form the basis of these analyses, and by drawing on social theoretical traditions that offer a more ambivalent reading of twentieth century cultural change, I develop an alternative framework for theorizing. In the chapters that follow, this perspective is explored through empirically grounded research that pays heed to the struggles of ordinary people in dealing with changing social conditions.
Moving from the theoretical to the historical, Chapter Two examines the discursive construction of nervousness. Anxiety about the "stresses and strains of modern life," advances in medical and scientific knowledge, and a developing consumer culture intersected in late nineteenth century Australia. In the context of significant social upheaval, the problem of nerves formed a juncture of medical knowledge and cultural discourses, one in which dimensions of gender, class, and consumerism came together in an emerging therapeutic ethos. The chapter explores how the increasing prevalence and recognition of nervous disorder destabilized accepted ideas about the self, especially the male self, a process that intensified with the outbreak of World War I and in its aftermath. Related developments in the field of psychiatry are also traced, especially those associated with emerging ideologies of treatment and prevention—first physical and then psychological—that saw the bifurcated categories of madness and sanity disrupted.
From changing medical and cultural discourses of nerves to the ascendancy of a scientific discourse of the self, Chapter Three examines psychology as the formal foundation of the therapeutic society. During the early decades of the twentieth century the institutionalization of psychology laid the basis for a new understanding of the self—one in which the individual was comprehensible through scientific knowledge. Psychology's articulation of the self was compatible with the notion of the liberal subject as rational and controllable, and the public sphere was constructed as a domain that could be improved by psychometrics and workplace testing. The chapter charts the professionalization of psychology in Australia and traces how emerging psychological knowledges were applied in the spheres of education and work—long before clinical psychology or counseling had any significant impact. The discussion reveals how psychology legitimized a new approach to the individual, one that was secured first through the development of a scientific project, but which later found expression in a new emotional and relational orientation to private life.
While psychology in education and industry was primarily drawn upon as a "science of the self," Chapter Four explores how psychoanalytically informed ideas resonated at the broader cultural level. An examination of the model of reflexive selfhood disseminated through the popular media reveals how psychoanalytic and other strands of psychological knowledge both reinforced and destabilized important dimensions of the gender order. At the institutional level, the emergence of marriage guidance during the postwar years represents a significant historical moment in which the advent of professional intervention for problems of private life paved the way for the variety of therapies and counseling modalities that emerged in subsequent decades. The nexus of professional self-interest and public education is explored through the marketing campaigns of the Australian Psychological Society, and through reflections of prominent Australian psychologists and therapists who straddle the roles of private therapist and public expert. The opening up of a new discursive space—what is commonly referred to as "confessional culture"—is then considered as enabling a public concern with suffering and a politicization of private life.
Chapter Five takes therapy itself as the focus and examines stories from individuals who have received psychological assistance, and reflections from those who provide it. Phenomenological accounts of both therapists and clients offer insights into quintessentially modern dilemmas. Interviews suggest that therapy cannot be reduced simply to self-absorption and narcissism, nor should its development be read in terms of the proliferation of "victim identities." Rather, therapy may be more usefully understood as a strategy to deal with fundamental dilemmas of modern life, from problems of mental health to a range of other difficulties arising from, or exacerbated by, various aspects of social change. The destabilization of the gender order and shifts in personal and working life emerge as central concerns, as does an important question, notably one neglected in debates of therapeutic culture: how to live with dignity.
The concluding chapter returns to questions of evaluating and theorizing the rise of the therapeutic society. Following an examination of disparate social, cultural, and institutional knowledges and processes, as well as accounts of individuals' own experience of therapeutic practices, the book suggests an alternative reading of sociocultural change. Rejecting dominant interpretations of moral collapse and cultural decline, it closes with an argument for greater recognition of the complex and contradictory dimensions of the therapeutic. In particular, I suggest that recognition of emotional suffering, made possible by the therapeutic turn, has an important part to play in moving towards a more just society. Indeed, I argue that acknowledgement of suffering and struggles for human dignity and social justice constitute central dimensions of the therapeutic project—ones that so far have been largely overlooked. A more complex and indeed ambivalent interpretation of cultural change is called for, one that acknowledges how the privileging of the psychological and emotional dimensions of selfhood has led to the exposure of widespread experiences of suffering, and has challenged a set of gendered arrangements governing both public and private life.
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The Therapeutic Society & Its Discontents
A cultural revolution does not occur as a discernible event, or as a plurality of events, nor does it occur swiftly within a few years, as does a political revolution; only afterwards, when the revolution itself has been incorporated into the new system of controls, do such mythic condensations of cultural change occur.
—Philip Rieff, 1966
For close to half a century, social scientists and cultural analysts have lamented the increasing influence of psychology, the rise of therapy and counseling, and an associated preoccupation with the self and internal life. From a variety of intellectual traditions and theoretical standpoints, it has been widely argued that the ascendancy of a modern therapeutic ethos has been a pernicious development, inciting cultural decline, a narcissistic concern with the self, and leading to