ABSTRACT
The term “psychologization” refers to psychology’s variegated imprints on late modern Western society. I argue in this chapter that over the last few decades, psychologization has become such a pervasive phenomenon that it is almost no longer possible to speak of psychologization as something distinct from other systems of meaning that can be subjected to critique. I draw on the French contemporary author Michel Houellebecq’s novel Whatever that examines the personal consequences of living under an individualized, psychological regime. To be a human being today is first and foremost to be a psychological being. A comparison of several influential critics of therapeutic culture leads to a seemingly recurring theme – the loss of alternatives – which now seems to have become a reality. Psychologization has, therefore, disappeared in the sense that is has evolved into a monotheistic ontology of late modernity. Ironically this therapeutic hegemony may not be healthy in the long run, either for the individual or for the planet.
