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West German Psychoanalysis in Post-Analytic Times: Navigating Demands for Self-Actualization, Self-Governance, and Social Change, 1968-1990

Kauders, Anthony D

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Abstract

This essay critically engages with the view that governmentality defined the parameters of psychotherapy in the late twentieth century. Even though different therapeutic schools embraced the values of autonomy, authenticity, and self-control, the meaning of these objectives varied, and gave rise to interpretations that were not confined to the goal of (“neoliberal”) self-optimization. While in some cases contemporaries associated psychotherapy with familiar (Enlightenment and middle-class) aims of sovereignty of reason and emotional restraint, in other instances they highlighted functionality and efficiency as desirable outcomes of therapy. The essay explores debates around personal self-actualization against the backdrop of psychoanalytic discourse in Germany between 1970 and 1990.

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jul 29, 2022
Online Publication Date Sep 15, 2022
Publication Date 2023-01
Publicly Available Date Sep 16, 2024
Journal Geschichte und Gesellschaft (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht)
Publisher Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht | Böhlau
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 48
Issue 2
Pages 197-219
DOI https://doi.org/10.13109/gege.2022.48.2.197
Keywords Polymers and Plastics, General Environmental Science
Publisher URL https://www.vr-elibrary.de/doi/abs/10.13109/gege.2022.48.2.197

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This file is under embargo until Sep 16, 2024 due to copyright restrictions.



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