We can't live without beliefs

Self and society in therapeutic engagements

Bibliographic Data

ID3394559
AuthorsSuvi Salmenniemi (0000-0002-9339-8673, University of Turku, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume65
Issue4
Pages611-627
Publication date2017-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Sociological Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-0261 • E-ISSN: 1467-954X
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0038026116677194
OpenAlexW2580922089
LanguageEN
Citations received18
References cited33

Therapeutic technologies of happiness, emotional wellbeing and self-improvement are a highly influential cultural phenomenon and a rapidly growing business worldwide; yet little is known of the motivations for engaging with these technologies. This article addresses this gap by investigating how therapeutic engagements are experienced and what participants hope to gain from them. Therapeutic technologies are conceived as psychologically informed regimes of knowledge and practice which aim to transform one's relationship to oneself and shape the ways in which one makes sense of and acts upon oneself and the social world. Drawing on a set of interviews with consumers of therapeutic technologies in Russia, the article identifies three key motivations for engaging with such technologies: searching for new blueprints for ethical work on the self after a profound transformation of the ideological field; coming to terms with new mechanisms of inequality, particularly in the field of labour; and mobilizing therapeutic technologies as a response to inadequacies in the field of health. By unpacking these motivations and subjective experiences of therapeutic engagements, the article seeks to shed light on the growing popularity of therapeutic technologies under contemporary capitalism

Blueprint · Consumerism · Emerging technologies · Field (mathematics) · Happiness · Political science · Popularity · Sociology · Employment and Welfare Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Psychology · Social Psychology · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics

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