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Control and consolation in American culture and politics : rhetoric of therapy / Dana L. Cloud.
LIBRA HN59.2 .C59 1998
Available from offsite location
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Cloud, Dana L.
- Series:
- Rhetoric & society (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) ; v. 1.
- Rhetoric & society
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Social problems--United States--Psychological aspects.
- Social problems.
- Psychotherapy--Social aspects--United States.
- Psychotherapy.
- Psychotherapy--Political aspects--United States.
- Psychoanalysis and culture--United States.
- Psychoanalysis and culture.
- Social control--United States.
- Social control.
- Psychotherapy--Political aspects.
- Psychotherapy--Social aspects.
- Psychological aspects.
- United States.
- Rhetoric and psychology.
- Physical Description:
- xxiv, 192 pages ; 24 cm.
- Place of Publication:
- Thousand Oaks : Sage Publications, [1998]
- Summary:
- In this perceptive analysis, Dana Cloud traces the replacement of social and political activism by the pursuit of personal, psychological change. She identifies the new movement as the "rhetoric of therapy," where a persuasive cultural discourse that applies concepts such as coping and adapting replaces active attempts to reform flawed systems of social and political power. Cloud focuses on the therapeutic discourse that emerged after the Vietnam War and links its rise to specific political and economic interests.
- Critical case studies identify the extent to which therapeutic discourses are persuasive, including: the rhetoric of "family values" ; media coverage of "support groups" during the Gulf War; Gloria Steinem's "Revolution from Within" ; the film "Thelma and Louise" ; and literature of the New Age Movement. ""
- Contents:
- Introduction : on therapy and the therapeutic
- Perspectives on the therapeutic
- The therapeutic in history : inventing and disciplining the modern self
- Family therapies : from the White House to the 'hood
- The support group nation
- The therapeutics of feminism : from self-esteem to suicide
- The new age of post-marxism
- Conclusion : antidotes to the therapeutic hegemony.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 169-181) and index.
- ISBN:
- 0761905065
- 0761905073
- OCLC:
- 37268476
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