ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a chronological survey in therapy culture to a pessimistic, ‘diminished’ image of the human subject prevalent in Anglo-American culture, psychology and politics. It summarises several theories that seek to explain why a diminished human subject has evolved, and outlines implications for humanist education. The chapter examines thesis that therapeutic education is dangerous for everyone since it not merely reflects but promotes a diminished account of what it means to be human. The rise of therapeutic education reflects a political and social orthodoxy about how to deal with what is variously seen as ‘emotional vulnerability’, ‘low self-esteem’, and a ‘fragile sense of self or identity’. The incursion of therapeutic ethos into new areas of culture and politics cannot wholly explain the rise of interest in emotion and the language of emotional subjectivity. A deeper cultural demoralisation in ideas about the nature of self and what it means to be human is evident.
