Towards what aims do the self-help texts orientate us?: A reflection from the foucauldian concept of Governability
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/isegoria.2014.051.12Keywords:
self-help books, technologies of the self, governability, psychotherapeutic discourse, political rationalityAbstract
The overwhelming presence of self-help books in the editorial production of recent decades prompts us to reflect not only on the needs these discourses attempt to fulfill, but also on the objectives to which they lead the behavior and attitudes of the contemporary individual. In this article we tackle such reflections using a foucauldian theoretical framework, by considering that self-help books fall under the domain of “technologies of the self”, and that their function can be interpreted in the light of the concept of governability. This concept concerns the relationship between technologies of power and technologies of the self allowing us to understand the sense in which the individual appears as governable, and it also permit us to clarify the contact point that psychological and psychiatric sciences have with the aims of the current political rationality.
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