PSYCHOLOGISATION AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE POLITICAL SUBJECT AS VULNERABLE OBJECT

In this paper I wish to highlight some of the factors that have influenced the wide-spread adoption of a therapeutic sensibility within wider society, one marked by an increased sense of societal anxiety, vulnerability and estrangement from each other, traditional forms of authority and political institutions. One outcome of the myriad complex dynamics affecting contemporary subjectivity is that therapeutic categori-sations and ways of thinking are no longer confined to the clinic or formal thera-peutic encounter between analyst and analysand but have permeated popular cul-ture, most notably in Western societies. I wish to consider the wider socio-political context that has influenced the widespread acceptance and adoption of a therapeu-tic consciousness focusing on the convergence of Left and Right political traditions around apocalyptic thinking, the institutionalisation of the concept of vulnerability and the move from macro to micropolitics. Some implications for individuals, socie-ty and politics are then highlighted. My main focus is on the United Kingdom, al-though I do make reference to developments in the United States of America (USA) as there has been a significant degree of mutual influence between both nations.