• 영미문화
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• 제14권1호
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• pp.73-94
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• 2014

Accounts from therapeutic culture seem often to associate the selfish, or at least self-centered quest for self-fulfillment with individual choice or satisfaction, self-expression, expressive individualism, and emotionalism. These associations point to the downside of therapy as they present it as constituting a culture of narcissism, selfishness, or irresponsibility. While some of these characterizations contain useful insights, they overlook what are maybe some of the most important features of a therapeutic outlook. This paper aims to reveal that the therapeutic imperative is not so much geared towards the realization of self-fulfillment, as it is the promotion of self-limitation. Therapeutic culture tends to posit the self in a fragile and feeble form and insist that the management of life requires the continuous intervention of therapeutic expertise. Because of this, the elevated concern with the self is underpinned by anxiety, pain, suffering, and survival, rather than seen as a positive vision of realizing the human potential. Therapeutic culture has in this way helped to construct a diminished sense of self by which one is seen as suffering from an emotional deficit and vulnerability. This paper demonstrates this downside of therapeutic culture concerning self-limitation and the sense of a diminished self by examining popular "misery memoirs." Misery memoirs are widely consumed by the general public, therefore tend to be treated by contemporary therapeutic culture as a gospel on the therapeutic ideal for self-fulfillment and self-discovery. This is, despite the existence of hidden evidence to the contrary, because of their redemptive, happy endings that show individuals overcoming difficult trials such as child abuse, incestuous rape, and domestic violence. Individual self-fulfillment and self-discovery in such stories are not achieved through the active agency of the subject but through the passive endurance of pathological symptoms and with the aid of expertise and outside support. Therefore, such stories put victims in the limited position.

• 철학연구
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• 제89호
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• pp.37-67
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• 2010

21세기가 문화의 세기이며, 영상의 시대라고 말할 정도로, 생활의 모든 영역이 시각적 이미지들로 넘쳐나고 있다. 이미지의 시각 편향화와 중심화가 주도적 문화양식이 된 것이 오늘의 일만은 아니다. 그렇지만 현대사회가 흔히 스펙터클의 사회로 불릴 정도로 이제 시각적 이미지가 문화적 근본조건이 되었다는 것은 특히 주목할만한 사건인 것이다. 따라서 우리의 논의는 이러한 문화를 추동하는 시선의 문제를, 눈의 매개로 전개되는 세계와 인간의 근원적 관계를 현상학적 관점에서 탐구하려 한다. 그런 연구의 중심에 메를로 퐁티의 『지각현상학』은 단초를 제공하고 있다고 볼 수 있다. 따라서 반시각중심주의는 아니라 하더라도, 시각우월성에 깊은 반성을 마련한 메를로 퐁티의 논의에 이르기까지 철학사에서 보였던 시각에 관한 중요한 철학들, 즉 플라톤과 칸트의 사상을 함께 검토하고, 이러한 논의들의 특징과 한계가 무엇인지 그리고 특히 진리성, 윤리성과 아름다움에 관련해 시각의 진정한 본성과 의미가 무엇인지를 밝히는 것이 이 연구의 주제이다.