- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: New York University Press (1 Jan 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 081475791X
- ISBN-13: 978-0814757918
- Product Dimensions: 22.7 x 15.2 x 2.6 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 840,003 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Review
."..Nolan argues that America's therapeutic culture has recently moved from the cultural realm of "symbols and codes" to penetrate the institutions of the modern American state. By delineating sharply between the culture of the therapeutic and therapeutic poicymaking, Nolan's probing work provides an important new methodological frame with which to study the therapeutic." -"American Studies International",
Product Description
The United States has always been profoundly conflicted about the role and utility of its government. Simmering just beneath the surface of heated public discussions over the appropriate scope and size of government are foundational questions about the very purpose of the state, and the basis of its authority. America's changing and diversifying cultural climate makes common agreement about the government's raison d' tre all the more difficult.
In The Therapeutic State, James Nolan shows us how these unresolved dilemmas have coalesced at century's end. Today the American state, faced with a steady decline in public confidence, has embraced a therapeutic code of moral understanding to legitimize its very existence.
By ranging widely across education, criminal justice, welfare, political rhetoric, and civil law, Nolan convincingly illustrates how the state increasingly turns to the therapeutic ethos as a justification for its programs and policies, a development that will profoundly influence the relationship between government and citizenry. In a tone refreshingly free of polemic, Nolan charts the dialectic relationship between culture and politics and, against the backdrop of striking historical contrasts, gives example after example of the emergence of therapeutic sensibilities in the processes of the American state.
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4.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An Insightful and Important Book, 12 July 2001
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Therapeutic State: Justifying Government at Century's End (Paperback)
This is an impressive and important scholarly work atuned to the cultural pulse of America. Nolan's comprehensive and well argued handling of contemporary American society's "therapeutic ethos" is very insightful and helpful to anyone studying law, education, politics, government, and popular culture in general. This is sociology at its finest--founded strongly in history, and sensitive to the subtle ways we understand ourselves, how we communicate that, and how that affects the way we live.This book is clearly organized and actually well written-- a rarity in scholarly works. For people with no knowledge of sociology or political science, this book is still very approachable.
I enjoyed reading it and highly reccomend it.
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