Ole Jacob Madsen

Åpenheten rundt angst og depresjon er større enn noen gang, men forskning viser at psykiske lidelser rammer flere unge enn før. De skal prestere på skolen, i treningsstudioet, i sosiale medier og samtidig legge grunnlaget for en karriere. Men dersom det hjelper å snakke om presset, hvorfor øker de psykiske lidelsene? I denne boken undersøker forfatteren vår egen tidsånd og leverer en samtidsdiagnose. Han leter etter svar i psykologien og den moderne, vestlige filosofihistorien. Han beskriver patologien i moderniteten og senmoderniteten, det særegne presset som unge mennesker opplever i dag og hvordan mediesamfunnet påvirker kultur og individ. Avslutningsvis deler han refleksjoner over veien videre for den oppvoksende generasjonen. Ole Jacob Madsen er psykolog og filosof. Han arbeider som professor ved Psykologisk institutt ved Universitetet i Oslo. Omtalen er utarbeidet av BS.

hva er det som feiler oss?

Generasjon prestasjon

In what ways has psychology become more influential in Western society? In this book author Ole Jacob Madsen considers the notion of a ‘Therapeutic Turn’ in Western culture – the tendency for psychology to permeate ever new spheres within society. The Therapeutic Turn evaluates the increasing prevalence of psychology in several areas of Western society: Western consumer culture, contemporary Christianity, self-help, sport and politics. Madsen proposes that there are problematic aspects to this development which are seldom recognised due to a widely held assumption that ‘the more psychology, the better for everyone’. A recurring concern with psychological solutions is that they often provide individual solutions to structural problems. As a result, psychologists may be inadvertently increasing the burden on the shoulders of the people they are meant to help and, at the same time, our capacity to understand individual suffering in the light of major historical and political changes in society is becoming increasingly clouded. The Therapeutic Turn presents an accessible and engaging critique of the influence of psychology within Western society. It will appeal to a broad audience of students, academics and lay readers interested in this aspect of modernity and contemporary society, and it will also be of great interest to practitioners and therapists.

How psychology altered Western culture

The Therapeutic Turn

This book provides an analysis of the social representations of leading self-help genres, including neurolinguistic programming, cognitive self-help therapy, mindfulness, self-management, self-esteem, self-leadership and self-control. Exploring the globalised therapeutic culture of today, the book argues that psychology as ‘science’ is often abandoned to aid the individual pursuit for self-realization and self-optimization. Opposing the view that self-help culture is external to psychology, Madsen argues that it is firmly embedded within psychology, playing an important role in people’s lives. Each chapter traces and critically interprets a range of self-help philosophies and techniques, examining the claims of self-help literature to represent the most innovative psychological, medical or neurobiological research. Discussing each genre in turn, chapters examine key research alongside self-help literature to explore the effectiveness and impact of leading self-help genres in various social contexts and environments. The book offers a contemporary critical overview of issues concerning self-help, combining critical psychology with the theory of social representation to provide a broad perspective on self-help as a valid psychology. Optimizing the Self will be of interest to academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of social representation, critical and cultural psychology and theory, clinical psychology, and the sociology of culture and science. The book will also be of use to critical and cultural psychologists and theorists, as well as clinical psychologists.

Social representations of self-help

Optimizing the Self

In this book, Professor Ole Jacob Madsen analyses the implications of Scandinavia's current concern for the mental health problems of adolescents, said to be struggling in the face of increasing demands for achievement and success. It critically examines our understanding of this so-called “achievement generation”, questioning whether today’s youth are really worse off than previous generations and how we have come to believe that this is so. The author’s wide-ranging investigation draws on a large body of research, as well as considering socio-political, historical and regional factors that might be affecting the resilience and mental health among young people. It also provides original psycholinguistic studies of popular media concepts associated with these issues including: “the achievement generation”, “pathological perfection” and “the good girl syndrome”. Deconstructing Scandinavia’s “Achievement Generation” presents an engaging contribution to key debates around therapeutic culture and society in the 21st century. It will appeal to students and scholars of critical and social psychology, sociology, anthropology, philosophy; as well as to those working in education, social work and mental health.

A Youth Mental Health Crisis?

Deconstructing Scandinavia's "Achievement Generation"

Edgar Cabanas

Daniel Nehring

China Mills

Dylan Kerrigan

The Routledge International Handbook of Global Therapeutic Cultures explores central lines of enquiry and seminal scholarship on therapeutic cultures, popular psychology, and the happiness industry. Bringing together studies of therapeutic cultures from sociology, anthropology, psychology, education, politics, law, history, social work, cultural studies, development studies, and American Indian studies, it adopts a consciously global focus, combining studies of the psychologisation of social life from across the world. Thematically organised, it offers historical accounts of the growing prominence of therapeutic discourses and practices in everyday life, before moving to consider the construction of self-identity in the context of the diffusion of therapeutic discourses in connection with the global spread of capitalism. With attention to the ways in which emotional language has brought new problematisations of the dichotomy between the normal and the pathological, as well as significant transformations of key institutions, such as work, family, education, and religion, it examines emergent trends in therapeutic culture and explores the manner in which the advent of new therapeutic technologies, the political interest in happiness, and the radical privatisation and financialisation of social life converge to remake self-identities and modes of everyday experience. Finally, the volume features the work of scholars who have foregrounded the historical and contemporary implication of psychotherapeutic practices in processes of globalisation and colonial and postcolonial modes of social organisation. Presenting agenda-setting research to encourage interdisciplinary and international dialogue and foster the development of a distinctive new field of social research, The Routledge International Handbook of Global Therapeutic Cultures will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in the advance of therapeutic discourses and practices in an increasingly psychologised society.

The Routledge International Handbook of Global Therapeutic Cultures

Kan skolen lære oss å mestre livet? Fra høsten 2020 kommer folkehelse og livsmestring inn i læreplanen i den norske skolen. Denne oppdateringen av Kunnskapsløftet er hilst velkommen av elever og lærere, helsepersonell og samtlige politiske partier. Men lar egentlig livet seg mestre? Er mestring en god målestokk for hvordan vi bør leve? Og vil livsmestring som tema i skolen svare på de vanskene barn sliter med i dag? Psykolog og filosof Ole Jacob Madsen mener at innføringen av livsmestring i skolen viser en tendens i vårt samfunn til å legge stadig mer ansvar på individet – i dette tilfellet barna våre. Det virker enklere å lære dem å takle presset, enn å faktisk redusere det. Men er vi bare i ferd med å lage enda en arena der barna skal prestere? Ole Jacob Madsen (f. 1978) er professor i kultur- og samfunnspsykologi ved Psykologisk institutt, Universitetet i Oslo. Her forsker han på psykologiens påvirkning på samtidskulturen.

Ole Jacob Madsen

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