ABSTRACT
The diminished self is both a product and a cause of a broader therapeutic turn in popular culture, and the professionalization of more areas of private life. This chapter explores the relationship between cultural and educational accounts of emotion and the language, assumptions, and labels of popular therapy that Dennis Hayes and the author have evaluated in relation to educational goals and practices in the book, The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education. It offers examples of these populist assumptions and explores how they permeate emotional interventions, sponsored as part of the British New Labour Government's particular view of social justice. The chapter summarizes the main strands of influence on policy in this area. It argues that a diminished sense of subjectivity lies behind these educational and cultural accounts. Finally, it concludes with the author's concerns about the implications for education based on the arguments in the chapter.
