ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a general overview of the problems inherent to accepted notions on “therapeutic cultures,” and outlines the theoretical concepts that ground the analysis. The chapter argues for the necessity of broadening the realm of “the therapeutic,” adapting a “bottom-up” approach based on the analysis of therapeutic narratives. As a result, instead of simply exploring the different forms of reception or appropriation of global “therapeutic cultures,” the analysis delves into the articulation between different ways of understanding and experimenting “the therapeutic.” It argues for conceptualizing the practices under analysis as assemblages and introduces a desubstantialized notion of subjectivation in order to account for the observed variety of ways of constructing personhood. Finally, it introduces a brief methodological note.
