ABSTRACT
This chapter examines “the therapeutic ethos” in contemporary Norwegian women’s magazines. A qualitative content analysis of the leading Norwegian women’s magazines, Women & Clothes and Tara, reveals how psychological experts, self-help advice, and the presentation of the self reflects a therapeutic ethos which has become a norm for women, offering a manageable way of dealing with individual self-realization. Leading theorists on the modern self argue that therapeutic discourses permeate the cultures of the Western world, and my analysis suggests that therapeutic discourses have succeeded in becoming recognized as cultural resources of selfhood in the local context I examine – Norway. The ideal of the empowered woman who is responsible enough to take care of her self stands at the forefront in these magazines. Yet, it is far from straightforward whether the therapeutic culture vibrant in the glossy pages simply are psychological remedies that lead to liberation, or if the quest for being the “best version of your self” ends up as exhausting and ultimately suppressing.
