Park, A., Curtice, J., Thomson, K., Phillips, M. and Clery, E. (eds.) (2009),
British Social Attitudes: the 25th Report, London: Sage




Therapy culture? Attitudes


towards emotional support

7

in Britain
*
Simon Anderson, Julie Brownlie and Lisa Given
The triumph of therapeutic culture is most striking in Britain, a society
that was formerly associated with reserve, understatement and
reticence. (Furedi, 2004: 18)

Recent years have seen a growing interest within the social sciences in the idea
of an emerging ‘therapeutic culture’. Some see evidence for this in the
expansion of the therapeutic professions and an apparent tendency to frame
social problems as problems of the ‘self’, rather than as reflecting structural
issues such as inequality or poverty. For others, it can be seen in the spreading
of therapeutic talk and beliefs beyond the realm of the therapeutic (Cloud,
1998). Consequently, even though few of us may be ‘in therapy’, we are all
exposed to therapeutic precepts through various channels, including self-help
literature, the confessional milieu of the media, and public health information
(Cameron, 2000). The concept of a therapeutic culture has also been invoked as
a way of characterising an increased concern with the expression and
management of emotions; a stigmatising of informal relations of dependency so
that our reliance on these falls as our dependency on formal relations increases
(Furedi, 2004); and an extension of the therapeutic sensibility beyond those
involved in therapy or counselling services, to shape all institutions in society
such as the legal and education systems (Nolan, 1998).
For sociologists, this interest in the therapeutic is part of a wider concern with
the relationship between the public and private sphere, and the balance between
formality and informality. Various theorists from the 1960s onwards (such as
Rieff, 1966; Lasch, 1979; and, more recently, Berlant, 2000) have addressed the
‘rise of the therapeutic’ in terms of its potential costs for both spheres. While
some, like Giddens (1991), highlight the opportunities rather than the costs of
therapeutic engagement, for the most part, theorists have taken a less rosy view

*
Simon Anderson is Director of the Scottish Centre for Social Research, part of
NatCen. Julie Brownlie is Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Department of Applied
Science, Stirling University. Lisa Given is a Senior Researcher at the Scottish Centre
for Social Research.
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