Past Events
- In association with Routledge and King's College London, and sponsored by the Body&Soul section of The Times
- Therapy Culture
- Cultivating Vulnerability in an Uncertain Age
- Venue: Great Hall, King's College London, the Strand, London (quad entrance through barrier)
- Date: November 22, 2003
- Time: Registration from 10am; symposium closes at 6.30pm
- Tickets: SOLD OUT
- Booking: This event has now taken place.
Transcripts available:
In recent decades 'therapy' has become a cultural phenomenon rather than just a clinical technique, influencing virtually every sphere of life. New syndromes and traumas regularly afflict people, whether it is soldiers with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, workers being bullied in the office, or filmstars suffering from sex addiction. Governments have adopted a variety of new therapeutic aims. Improving self esteem is now an accepted goal of education; at university, seeing a counsellor is now almost as routine as attending a lecture. A therapeutic ethos now dominates humanitarian interventions in international conflicts, while relations between the state and its citizens at home are being transformed by therapeutic welfare initiatives.
This privileging of the emotions entails a radical redefinition of personhood. Increasingly, vulnerability is presented as the defining feature of people's psychology. Terms like 'at risk', 'scarred for life' and 'psychologically damaged' evoke a unique sense of powerlessness.
Speakers at this conference will question the widely accepted thesis that all this is an enlightened shift towards 'emotional intelligence' and empowerment. By framing the problems of everyday life in emotional terms, is the therapeutic culture encouraging us all to become victims, to feel ill and powerless? Is the therapeutic culture, as Furedi argues, primarily about imposing a new conformity through the management of people's emotions?
10.30am - 12noon Therapy Culture - general trends
Speaker
- Frank Furedi
- professor of sociology, University of Kent, and author of Therapy Culture
Respondents
- Adam Curtis
- maker of The Century of The Self, a BBC2 documentary series about how Freud's ideas have been used for social and political purposes
- Bill Durodié
- senior research fellow, Centre for Defence Studies, King's College London
- Hilly Janes
- editor of Body&Soul, The Times
- Dr David Wainwright
- University of Bristol Medical School
Chair
- Claire Fox
- director, Institute of Ideas
12.15 - 1.30pm We're all ill now: therapy and the fragile personality
Speaker
- Sally Satel MD
- author of One Nation Under Therapy and How Political Correctness is Corrupting Medicine
Respondents
- Dr Michael Fitzpatrick
- GP and author of The Tyranny of Health: doctors and the regulation of lifestyle
- Frank Furedi
- professor of sociology, University of Kent
- Virginia Ironside
- the Independent
- Andrew Marshall
- Body&Soul columnist, The Times
Chair
- Tony Gilland
- Institute of Ideas
2.30 - 3.45pm We're all stressed now: therapy in the workplace
Speaker
- Dr David Wainwright
- University of Bristol Medical School, author of Work stress: The Making of a Modern Epidemic
Respondents
- Jennie Bristow
- commissioning editor, spiked
- Frank Furedi
- professor of sociology, University of Kent
- Derek Summerfield
- honorary senior lecturer, Institute of Psychiatry
Chair
- Tiffany Jenkins
- Institute of Ideas
4.15 - 5.30pm War and conflict: the internationalisation of therapy culture
Speakers
- Vanessa Pupavac
- lecturer, School of Politics, University of Nottingham, author of Therapeutic Governance: Psychosocial Intervention and Trauma Risk Management
- Derek Summerfield
- honorary senior lecturer, Institute of Psychiatry, author of Effects of War: Moral Knowledge, Revenge, Reconciliation, and Medicalised Concepts of 'Recovery'
Respondents
- David Chandler
- senior lecturer in international relations, Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster; editor of Rethinking Human Rights: Critical Approaches to International Politics
- Frank Furedi
- professor of sociology, University of Kent
Chair
- Dolan Cummings
- Institute of Ideas
5.35 - 6.30pm Roundtable ruminations on therapy culture
Speakers
- Adam Curtis, Michael Gove (Saturday editor, The Times), Frank Furedi, Sally Satel
