ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes that the “therapeutic culture hypothesis”, according to which most contemporary identities are therapeutically inflected, coloured by, and, in some cases, organised around a therapeutic sensibility. There are three key core elements to this therapeutic sensibility: expressivity, knowledge, and compassion. A component of the therapeutic culture hypothesis is the emotionalisation hypothesis, that is, the proposition that there is a trend towards greater emotional expressivity and a generally increasing affectivity in everyday life. The emotionalisation hypothesis can be presented in some theoretical terms from classic sociology. At a basic level, there is a wide preoccupation with feelings. Therapeutic culture is a polyvalent development. The positive connotation of an exclusive culture of emotional expressivity is that it suggests spontaneous feeling, rather than a more restrictive management of emotion. The terms “therapeutic” and “manage” are used in a neutral way, implying neither unproblematic ideals of cure and autonomy nor sinister projects of governance and control.
