Barbro Klein Fellow, SCAS.
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and International Relations, Manisa Celal Bayar University

ABSTRACT:
Therapeutic culture constitutes a key modality in the formation of contemporary subjectivities, as knowledge, techniques, concepts derived from the realm of psychology are applied across diverse domains of everyday life. For some social theorists, therapeutic culture leads to depoliticization, withdrawal to the personal realm, and produces self-governing subjectivities. For others, it fosters a form of “politics from below”, centered on the individual, with the potential to subvert social hierarchies, particularly those related to gender.

Yet, what if the therapeutic realm is not only a turn toward the individual, but also instrumental in enabling the encroachment of political institutions and discourses into the personal? This question is especially important in the contemporary moment of surging authoritarian populisms, which turn political contentions into personal grievances, and intensify affective polarization around gendered subjectivities, lifestyles, religiosity, and morality.

This seminar explores Turkey’s expanding landscape of therapeutic discourses and practices in the context of authoritarianization and affective polarization, examining (1) how the therapeutic becomes a site of state-endorsed intervention into family and gender relations; (2) what meanings about gendered subjectivities are produced within therapeutic engagements, and how these meanings intersect with state discourses. In the conclusion, I will reflect on the role of therapeutic discourses in the contemporary convergence of the political and the personal.