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April 28, 2005
The omni-presence of psychoanalytical categories of thought in our culture is no longer even questioned . We now live in an increasingly psychology-obsessed age, something close to Richard Sennett’s 'tyranny of intimac'’ which thrives on solipsistic confessionalism. The diagnoses on the deaths of the subject and author, and the decline of agency, goes hand in hand with the narrative of emotional vulnerability inherent in our therapy-centred culture.
Sociologist Frank Furedi sees the therapeutic project of selfhood as one of the most significant developments in contemporary Western culture and as representing the reconfiguration of a radically new definition of the human subject.
We have a therapy culture associated with the 'growth industry' of counselling and the spread of concepts such as 'self-esteem'. Therapy has become a way of life.In Therapy Culture: Cultivating Vulnerability In An Uncertain Age, Frank Furedi says that:
"Therapy culture represents a shift from the view of the robust, independent person, capable of great individual and collective achievements, to the notion of the fragile, powerless victim in need of continual professional support. Far less is expected of humans in the twenty-first century than was expected in the nineteenth.Today's society operates around the belief that people can't cope on their own, or face the challenges of life."
In a time when social change is off the agenda, therapy culture unites conservatism and radicalism under an umbrella of survivalism. When it is accepted that there is nothing we can do about the circumstances that we live in, the big challenge of the new century becomes helping individuals merely adapt.
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Quite the phenomenon. In this time and age, man is expected to reduce himself to the inept being that culture has rendered him. Yes, vulnerability has become a common trait amongst the masses. Why? I assume it cooresponds with a widespread craving for attention. Afterall, solipsistic confessionalism is just that, an enfeebled demand for attention. How can you stop it? MOST people aren't wasting away in the cornfields anymore. They're boxed up in cubicles, mulling over emotions. What else is there to do?