Mathew Thomson
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199287802
- eISBN:
- 9780191713378
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199287802.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter presents a new picture of the extent and nature of as well as the channels for the popularization of psychological thought and practice in Britain, focusing on the period from the start ...
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This chapter presents a new picture of the extent and nature of as well as the channels for the popularization of psychological thought and practice in Britain, focusing on the period from the start of the 20th century to the end of the 1930s. It downplays the enthusiasm for Freud and psychoanalysis, instead draws attention to the ‘practical psychology’ and New Thought movements as well as spiritualism and Pelmanism. It highlights their suspicion of expertise and their interest in self-improvement via the interrelationship between mind, body, and spirit. It uncovers the role of clubs, correspondence courses, and advice literature in the transmission of practical understanding. It also demonstrates a shift in the nature of popular psychology in the interwar period, with greater interest, for instance, in psychoanalysis, sex, and lifestyle, relating this to class, gender, and the increasing influence of experts in the field.Less
This chapter presents a new picture of the extent and nature of as well as the channels for the popularization of psychological thought and practice in Britain, focusing on the period from the start of the 20th century to the end of the 1930s. It downplays the enthusiasm for Freud and psychoanalysis, instead draws attention to the ‘practical psychology’ and New Thought movements as well as spiritualism and Pelmanism. It highlights their suspicion of expertise and their interest in self-improvement via the interrelationship between mind, body, and spirit. It uncovers the role of clubs, correspondence courses, and advice literature in the transmission of practical understanding. It also demonstrates a shift in the nature of popular psychology in the interwar period, with greater interest, for instance, in psychoanalysis, sex, and lifestyle, relating this to class, gender, and the increasing influence of experts in the field.
Robert C. Fuller
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195146806
- eISBN:
- 9780199834204
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195146808.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Popular psychology has emerged as one of the major sources of Americans’ self‐understanding. From Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay on “Self‐Reliance” to today, American reading audiences have turned to ...
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Popular psychology has emerged as one of the major sources of Americans’ self‐understanding. From Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay on “Self‐Reliance” to today, American reading audiences have turned to popular psychologies with the hope of learning how they might inwardly align themselves with the deepest energies of the universe. William James, Abraham Maslow, and Carl Rogers are but a few of the acclaimed academic psychologists who have nurtured this uniquely American form of “psychological spirituality.” As exemplified in the writings of Rev. Norman Vincent Peale, this psychological spirituality has also filtered into the vocabulary with which members of mainstream churches take their religious bearings on life.Less
Popular psychology has emerged as one of the major sources of Americans’ self‐understanding. From Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay on “Self‐Reliance” to today, American reading audiences have turned to popular psychologies with the hope of learning how they might inwardly align themselves with the deepest energies of the universe. William James, Abraham Maslow, and Carl Rogers are but a few of the acclaimed academic psychologists who have nurtured this uniquely American form of “psychological spirituality.” As exemplified in the writings of Rev. Norman Vincent Peale, this psychological spirituality has also filtered into the vocabulary with which members of mainstream churches take their religious bearings on life.
Dan P. McAdams
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195176933
- eISBN:
- 9780199786787
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195176933.003.0006
- Subject:
- Psychology, Social Psychology
This chapter examines key themes in the redemptive self as expressed in the tradition of American self-help and in well-known theories of psychological development. It opens with a survey of American ...
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This chapter examines key themes in the redemptive self as expressed in the tradition of American self-help and in well-known theories of psychological development. It opens with a survey of American self-help books from the past fifty years and then traces themes of self-help — including the notion that everybody has a good and true inner self that should be explored and eventually actualized in psychological development — from the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson in the 19th century through Freud (who rejected Emerson's view), the humanistic psychologies of Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow, attachment theory, and the self-psychology of Heinz Kohut, and culminating with Oprah Winfrey's extraordinarily American vision of the redemptive self as the recovery of one's original good essence in the face of poverty, addiction, or abuse.Less
This chapter examines key themes in the redemptive self as expressed in the tradition of American self-help and in well-known theories of psychological development. It opens with a survey of American self-help books from the past fifty years and then traces themes of self-help — including the notion that everybody has a good and true inner self that should be explored and eventually actualized in psychological development — from the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson in the 19th century through Freud (who rejected Emerson's view), the humanistic psychologies of Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow, attachment theory, and the self-psychology of Heinz Kohut, and culminating with Oprah Winfrey's extraordinarily American vision of the redemptive self as the recovery of one's original good essence in the face of poverty, addiction, or abuse.
Adele Reinhartz
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195146967
- eISBN:
- 9780199785469
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195146967.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter looks at the portrayal of Mary, Jesus' mother, in the Gospels and in the Jesus biopics. The films ask two major questions: What was Mary's role in Jesus' infancy and childhood? And, what ...
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This chapter looks at the portrayal of Mary, Jesus' mother, in the Gospels and in the Jesus biopics. The films ask two major questions: What was Mary's role in Jesus' infancy and childhood? And, what sort of relationship did Mary and Jesus have in his adulthood? It concludes that Mary's cinematic portrayal is affected by the conventional psychological assumptions of modern western society: the connection between childhood experiences and adult identity, and the notion that one of the marks of a mature adult is the quality of her or his relationship with parents and other family members. Also crucial is the role of Mary in Christian, particularly Catholic, theology. While Mary's role in film may be empowering for some women, she is generally cast in a supportive and secondary role.Less
This chapter looks at the portrayal of Mary, Jesus' mother, in the Gospels and in the Jesus biopics. The films ask two major questions: What was Mary's role in Jesus' infancy and childhood? And, what sort of relationship did Mary and Jesus have in his adulthood? It concludes that Mary's cinematic portrayal is affected by the conventional psychological assumptions of modern western society: the connection between childhood experiences and adult identity, and the notion that one of the marks of a mature adult is the quality of her or his relationship with parents and other family members. Also crucial is the role of Mary in Christian, particularly Catholic, theology. While Mary's role in film may be empowering for some women, she is generally cast in a supportive and secondary role.
Daniel Nehring
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781529200997
- eISBN:
- 9781529201345
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781529200997.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Politics, Social Movements and Social Change
Since the 1970s, academic debates have considered how psychological discourses may legitimize or challenge capitalist forms of social organization. However, these debates have largely focused on the ...
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Since the 1970s, academic debates have considered how psychological discourses may legitimize or challenge capitalist forms of social organization. However, these debates have largely focused on the USA and Western Europe. The roles which psychological discourses play in contemporary popular cultures in Latin America remain poorly understood. Here, I use an analysis of the Mexican self-help publishing industry to examine the roles which psychological narratives may play in constructing, bolstering or subverting neoliberal subjectivities. Self-help books, my subject matter, are widely read in Mexico and at the international level. They therefore constitute a nexus through which the narratives of self and social relationships of academic psychology percolate into popular culture. In Mexico, self-help publishing involves, first, the translation and sale of texts written elsewhere, often in the USA, Europe and other Latin American nations, and, second, the sale of books by Mexican authors. This gives the Mexican self-help industry a distinctively hybrid character, as a variety of interpretations of self-improvement compete with each other for a readership. Here, I contrast self-help texts that blend psychological concepts with Christian nationalism with secular accounts that rely on pseudo-scientific and philosophical arguments to formulate a moral vision of a successful life. In spite of their narrative diversity, I argue that neoliberal understandings of self, choice, and personal responsibility are pervasive in self-help texts. The organization of the self-help publishing industry according to neoliberal economic principles and the refashioning of authors as competitive self-help entrepreneurs may explain this narrative convergence to some extent.Less
Since the 1970s, academic debates have considered how psychological discourses may legitimize or challenge capitalist forms of social organization. However, these debates have largely focused on the USA and Western Europe. The roles which psychological discourses play in contemporary popular cultures in Latin America remain poorly understood. Here, I use an analysis of the Mexican self-help publishing industry to examine the roles which psychological narratives may play in constructing, bolstering or subverting neoliberal subjectivities. Self-help books, my subject matter, are widely read in Mexico and at the international level. They therefore constitute a nexus through which the narratives of self and social relationships of academic psychology percolate into popular culture. In Mexico, self-help publishing involves, first, the translation and sale of texts written elsewhere, often in the USA, Europe and other Latin American nations, and, second, the sale of books by Mexican authors. This gives the Mexican self-help industry a distinctively hybrid character, as a variety of interpretations of self-improvement compete with each other for a readership. Here, I contrast self-help texts that blend psychological concepts with Christian nationalism with secular accounts that rely on pseudo-scientific and philosophical arguments to formulate a moral vision of a successful life. In spite of their narrative diversity, I argue that neoliberal understandings of self, choice, and personal responsibility are pervasive in self-help texts. The organization of the self-help publishing industry according to neoliberal economic principles and the refashioning of authors as competitive self-help entrepreneurs may explain this narrative convergence to some extent.
Sarah Brouillette
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780804789486
- eISBN:
- 9780804792431
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804789486.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter discusses the success of narratives that focus on a protagonist's therapeutic trajectory from suffering self to successful entrepreneur, and suggests that writers have themselves been ...
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This chapter discusses the success of narratives that focus on a protagonist's therapeutic trajectory from suffering self to successful entrepreneur, and suggests that writers have themselves been crucial models of this therapeutic biography. It begins by discussing Aravind Agida's 2008 novel The White Tiger as a critique of the neoliberal rhetoric of entrepreneurial innovation. The novel suggests that this rhetoric downplays dependence on an expanding service class, and requires its protagonist's anti-social conception of the flexible self as an engine of capital accumulation. The chapter compares Adiga's work to Monica Ali's 2009 novel In the Kitchen, homing in on its depiction of the breakdown of Gabriel, an aspiring restaurant owner who embodies many of the features of the creative worker imagined by New Labour policy.Less
This chapter discusses the success of narratives that focus on a protagonist's therapeutic trajectory from suffering self to successful entrepreneur, and suggests that writers have themselves been crucial models of this therapeutic biography. It begins by discussing Aravind Agida's 2008 novel The White Tiger as a critique of the neoliberal rhetoric of entrepreneurial innovation. The novel suggests that this rhetoric downplays dependence on an expanding service class, and requires its protagonist's anti-social conception of the flexible self as an engine of capital accumulation. The chapter compares Adiga's work to Monica Ali's 2009 novel In the Kitchen, homing in on its depiction of the breakdown of Gabriel, an aspiring restaurant owner who embodies many of the features of the creative worker imagined by New Labour policy.
Donald Westbrook
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- December 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190664978
- eISBN:
- 9780190921453
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190664978.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
This chapter examines some of the psychological, philosophical, theological, and legal foundations of the Scientology religion in postwar America in the early 1950s. The process by which L. Ron ...
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This chapter examines some of the psychological, philosophical, theological, and legal foundations of the Scientology religion in postwar America in the early 1950s. The process by which L. Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics movement transformed into the institutionalized religion of Scientology provides scholars of American religion a documented history of the birth and construction of a new religion in Cold War America—one that freely assimilated influences from Eastern and Western religion, popular psychology, and science fiction. In the 1950s, Dianetics organizations faced a major legitimation crisis when the legal rights to use “Dianetics” were temporarily lost to an outside investor. Before reacquiring them, Hubbard had already begun to brand “Scientology” as the spiritualized (and administratively centralized) outcome of Dianetics techniques. Two of the most central innovations during this transition were an emphasis on out-of-body experiences (“exteriorizations”) and especially the recollection of past lives, both of which informed Hubbard’s mental and spiritual counseling.Less
This chapter examines some of the psychological, philosophical, theological, and legal foundations of the Scientology religion in postwar America in the early 1950s. The process by which L. Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics movement transformed into the institutionalized religion of Scientology provides scholars of American religion a documented history of the birth and construction of a new religion in Cold War America—one that freely assimilated influences from Eastern and Western religion, popular psychology, and science fiction. In the 1950s, Dianetics organizations faced a major legitimation crisis when the legal rights to use “Dianetics” were temporarily lost to an outside investor. Before reacquiring them, Hubbard had already begun to brand “Scientology” as the spiritualized (and administratively centralized) outcome of Dianetics techniques. Two of the most central innovations during this transition were an emphasis on out-of-body experiences (“exteriorizations”) and especially the recollection of past lives, both of which informed Hubbard’s mental and spiritual counseling.
