Saving the Modern Soul Therapy, Emotions, and the Culture of Self-Help [Paperback]

The language of psychology is all-pervasive in American culturefromThe SopranostoOprah,from the abundance of self-help books to the private consulting room, and from the support group to the magazine advice column.Saving the Modern Soulexamines the profound impact of therapeutic discourse on our lives and on our contemporary notions of identity. Eva Illouz plumbs today's particular cultural moment to understand how and why psychology has secured its place at the core of modern identity. She examines a wide range of sources to show how self-help culture has transformed contemporary emotional life and how therapy complicates individuals' lives even as it claims to dissect their emotional experiences and heal trauma.

Eva Illouzis a professor of sociology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a member of the Center for the Study of Rationality. She is also the Academic Director of the Program in Cultural Studies. She is the author ofConsuming the Romantic Utopia: Love and the Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism(UC Press; honorable mention, Outstanding Contribution Award, American Sociological Association, 2000); The Culture of Capitalism (in hebrew);Oprah Winfrey and the Glamour of Misery: An Essay on Popular Culture(Best Book Award, American Sociological Association, 2005); andCold Intimacies: The Making of Emotional Capitalism.

Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
Cultural Sociology and the Therapeutic
Therapy as a New Emotional Style
Texts and Contexts
Cultural Critique and Psychology

2. Freud: ACultural Innovator
Psychoanalysis as a Charismatic Enterprise
The Social Organization of Freudian Charisma
Freud in America
The Freudian Cultural Matrix
The Romance of Psychology and Popular Culture
Conclusion


3. From Homo economicus to Homo communicans
Emotional Control in the Sociology of Organizations
The PlSA