Therapy Culture: Cultivating Vulnerability in an Uncertain Age (Paperback)

by Frank Furedi (Author) "Trying to make sense of the problems that confront us in a complex modern society is a challenge fraught with difficulty..." (more)
Key Phrases: emotional determinism, therapeutic governance, public emotionalism, New Labour, Northern Ireland, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Professor Furedi has written an important book ... which is essential to the understanding of our times.'
- Theodore Dalrymple, Sunday Telegraph

Therapy is indeed the new opium of the people, as Frank Furedi makes clear in this fascinating, readable - and disturbing - book. - Virginia Ironside, The Independent

'Can it really be such a bad thing that we are now more aware of the place of mental health in our make-up? Furedi leaves us in no doubt that the therapy culture has invaded our media, our workplace, our intimate relationships and our politics. It is an interesting polemic. We should be grateful for the balance this book inspires'
- Community Care 25/4/04

'Furedi gives us much food for thought that we would do well to consider ... This book highlights the dichotomy between schools as centres of learning or of socialisation.' - Alan McLean, Times Education Supplement (Scotland)

 'I enjoyed this book, and found it compulsive reading.' - www.AutoBiographyJournal.com

'Furedi forensically examines this brave new emotional world: the rush of counsellors to the site of every trauma, the ways in which economic problems are recast as psychological phenomena, the cult of the Victim, the decline of political activism.' - Melissa Benn, The Independent

'If you give it your little finger it will soon have your whole hand, Sigmund Freud said of psychoanalysis in 1900. He had obviously seen the future. As sociology professor Frank Furedi says in his new book Therapy Culture, we live in a culture that takes emotions very seriously.' - Ursula Kenny, The Observer

'Therapy is indeed the new opium of the people, as Frank Furedi makes clear in this fascinating, readable - and disturbing - book.' - Virginia Ironside, The Independent

Can it really be such a bad thing that we are now more aware of the place of mental health in our make-up? Furedi leaves us in no doubt that the therapy culture has invaded our media, our workplace, our intimate relationships and our politics. It is an interesting polemic. We should be grateful for the balance this book inspires
- Community Care 25/4/04

Forensically examines this brave new emotional world - The Independent

This is what our life is all about. Instead of seeking a treatment for it, we should try living it. - The Times

Product Description
Frank Furedi, author of the critically acclaimed Paranoid Parenting, turns his sharp eye to explore the powerful influence of therapeutic imperative in contemporary society in his latest book Therapy Culture. In recent decades virtually every sphere of life has become subject to a new emotional culture. Furedi suggests that the recent cultural turn toward the realm of the emotions coincides with a radical redefinition of personhood. Increasingly vulnerability is presented as the defining feature of people's psychology.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Routledge (December 18, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 041532159X
• ISBN-13: 978-0415321594
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #986,364 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating ideas but poorly edited, February 13, 2005

By	Idea Lover (Ottawa, Canada) - See all my reviews

Furedi's interesting book explores how self-reliance and problem-solving through informal relationships have been gradually replaced by a therapeutic culture that, by medicalising everyday behaviour, encourages helplessness and promotes new forms of social control.

This book was well worth the read because the ideas were so fascinating, but one could be put off by the atrocious copy editing. Compared with Furedi's earlier well-edited "Paranoid Parenting," "Therapy Culture" had numerous distracting grammatical and spelling errors. It would have deserved a higher rating had it been better edited.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good subject, poor execution, December 1, 2005

By	J. Doe - See all my reviews

I was excited when I found out about this book, because I agree with the author's overall thesis. I really wanted to like the book, but I came away sadly disappointed.

Furedi has some interesting ideas, but his writing is needlessly dense and dreary. Granted, this is an academic work, but still -- a good editor could probably bring this book to life. As it stands, however, the overall subject matter is interesting, but the book is almost unreadable.

For a much better treatment of essentially the same topic, see "One Nation Under Therapy", by Christina Hoff Sommers and Sally Satel.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars editing?, October 14, 2006

By	proofreader (USA) - See all my reviews

I'm reading this book right now, and I'm amazed it went to print with so many grammatical errors, particularly agreement problems. (For instance, the author repeatedly begins sentences with plural subjects and then uses singular verb forms.) There are also many typos. It's really unbelievable. There must be at least one error on every page. The book brings up some interesting ideas and criticisms of the growth of pop psychology and Western culture's reliance on therapy, but good lord, the errors are incredibly distracting! I just had to comment on it because I can't believe how bad the editing is.