Therapeutic Culture and Identity in Contemporary Society
Summary
Therapeutic culture denotes the pervasive integration of psychological frameworks and self-help ideologies into everyday life, shaping how individuals construct personal identity and navigate social relations. Emerging from twentieth-century psychoanalysis and humanistic psychology, therapeutic practices have migrated beyond clinical settings into educational institutions, workplaces, digital platforms and community spaces. This migration has reframed experiences of adversity, resilience and self-improvement through narratives of emotional management, mental health and wellbeing. Concurrently, the global wellness industry and digital mental health applications have commodified self-care, aligning personal development with market logics characteristic of neoliberal governance. These trends generate tensions between individual agency and structural factors, spurring debates about collective responsibility, social solidarity and the ethics of emotional expertise. Across policy, professional practice and civic life, therapeutic concepts now shape authority, inform public discourse on education and health, and underwrite initiatives aimed at enhancing productivity and cohesion. The global reach of therapeutic narratives underscores their significance for understanding how identities are crafted, regulated and transformed, and highlights the need to appraise critically the balance between personal empowerment and systemic change in diverse cultural contexts.
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Technical terms
Therapeutic culture: the pervasive influence of psychological and self-help discourses in shaping individuals’ understanding of themselves and their social relations.
Psychosocial: relating to the interrelation of social factors and individual thought and behaviour.
Neoliberalism: a political-economic ideology emphasising individual responsibility, market-driven governance and minimal state intervention.
Self-care: practices undertaken by individuals to maintain or improve their physical and mental health, often framed as personal responsibility.
Safe space: an environment intended to be free from discrimination or criticism, where individuals can express themselves without fear of emotional harm.
References
- What happens to the “social” in psychosocial? Exploring epistemic practices and therapeutic culture in teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education (2025).
- Social Distancing, Safe Spaces and the Demand for Quarantine. Society (2020).
- COVID-19 Pandemic and the Crisis of Care: Wellness Discourses, Neoliberal Self-Care, and (Dis)Infodemic. Social Sciences (2023).
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