The Therapeutic Spirit of Neoliberalism
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6350146 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Roger Foster (Department of Social Science, Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2016 |
| Volume | 44 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 82-105 |
| Publication date | 2016-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Political Theory (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0090-5917 • E-ISSN: 1552-7476 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0090591715594660 |
| OpenAlex | W791614885 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 38 |
My essay argues that neoliberal forms of government emerged through the shifting political trajectory of the therapeutic ethos in the postwar period in Anglo-American societies. In the postwar era, the therapeutic ethos attracted the attention of conservative cultural critics who described it as a destructive force on communal obligation. Initially, the therapeutic ethos appeared to align naturally with New Left ideas of democratization in the workplace and private sphere. However, I argue that the New Right was subsequently able to sever the therapeutic ethos from its alignment with social democratization by imbuing it with an alternative set of meanings centered on the ideas of market freedom and the entrepreneur. The result was the construction of the new, neoliberal forms of power, which, I argue, take the form of the management of subjectivity. Finally, I outline the two major social pathologies of the neoliberal era, namely, the consequences of its contractualized notion of citizenship and the explosion of social inequality, both of which are traceable to the influence of therapeutic notions of the self
Democracy · Democratization · Epistemology · Ethos · Neoliberalism (international relations · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Sociology · Subjectivity · Law · Philosophy · Psychoanalysis, Philosophy, and Politics
Wellness creep into music streaming platforms
Jak ryby w wodzie. Kultura terapii i jej krytycy
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On the psycho-emotional deficitisation of workers in the age of cognitive enhancement
From the therapeutic to the post-therapeutic
The Power of the Imaginary as an Informal Institution
Psychotherapy in the locus of the sociological and in the optics of the critical
Toward a critical theory of corporate wellness
Qualia of Stress and Bodily Enregisterment in Ice Swimming
Neoliberal and authoritarian updates on U.S. white democracy
He stopped to lower his window and say hello”
Neoliberal governance or digitalized autocracy? The rising market for online opinion surveillance in China
Quels enjeux pour la critique face aux nouveaux objets de la recherche en éducation ? Quelques réflexions à partir de l’exemple québécois
Trump therapy
Gastrodiplomacy in Turkey
Trauma
Therapy culture and the production of subjectivity in neoliberalism
From self-care to social-self care
Social Pathology
The crisis of social reproduction and therapeutic self-care
John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band as ‘first-person music
Revisiting the depoliticisation thesis
Writing our Wrongs
Cultural Discrepancies in Interaction
Alter-neoliberal analysis
Wellbeing’ and the production of disability in the university
Therapeutic politics
Critical theories of neoliberalism and their significance for left politics
Introduction to the Special Issue on Protest and Authoritarian Reaction in Belarus
Queer Muslim solidarity
Are you a neoliberal subject? On the uses and abuses of a concept
The Self in Self-Help
Therapeutic politics reconsidered
Going-With-The-Flow' or 'Getting-Things-Done
Self-optimisation
Therapeutic Borderlands
Against accumulation
Pozitively Me
| Unique citing works | 38 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4,22 |
| Citation span | 2017 - 2026 (10) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 38 |