The Therapeutic State

by Nolan, James L.

• ISBN13: 9780814757918
• ISBN10: 081475791X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-01-01
• Publisher: New York Univ Pr

Summary

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'être 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.

Table of Contents

List of Tables	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
The Therapeutic Culture	p. 1
The Emancipated Self	p. 2
The Emotivist Ethic	p. 5
A New Priestly Class	p. 7
The Pathologization of Human Behavior	p. 9
Victimization	p. 15
The Therapeutic Ethos	p. 17
Legitimation of the State	p. 22
Theoretical Considerations	p. 23
Older Sources of Legitimation	p. 27
State Expansion	p. 38
Public Disenchantment	p. 40
The Therapeutic Alternative	p. 45
Civil Case Law	p. 46
Personal Injury Law	p. 46
The Doctrinal History of Emotional Damage Cases	p. 55
Recovery of Emotional Damages in the New Legal Climate	p. 62
Psychologists as Expert Witnesses	p. 68
Litigation Reform: Therapeutic and Utilitarian Defenses	p. 72
Criminal Justice	p. 77
Drugs and Crime	p. 78
The Historical Antecedents to Therapeutic Justice	p. 80
Courtroom Therapy	p. 83
Prison Therapy	p. 112
Public Education	p. 128
The Colonial Period	p. 129
Universal Free Education	p. 132
Compulsory Education	p. 138
The Progressive Era	p. 140
The Cosmopolitan Era	p. 146
Therapeutic Education	p. 150
School Counselors	p. 151
In a State of Esteem	p. 172
Welfare Policy	p. 182
Congress and the Well-Being of Children	p. 183
Child Labor Laws and the Children's Bureau (1906-1912)	p. 184
The Sheppard-Towner Act (1921)	p. 191
Social Security and Emergency Wartime Aid to Children (1939-1945)	p. 199
Head Start and Operation Good Start (1965-1970)	p. 207
Head Start and Child Abuse Bills (1985-1990)	p. 213
Welfare Reform: Rejection or Extension of Therapeutic Welfare?	p. 220
Excursus: The Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill Hearings	p. 226
Political Rhetoric	p. 235
The Therapeutic President	p. 235
Political Oratory	p. 241
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates	p. 244
The Kennedy-Nixon Debates	p. 252
The Reagan-Mondale Debates	p. 259
The Clinton-Bush-Perot Debates	p. 266
The Talk Show Debate	p. 269
The Therapeutic Candidate	p. 273
The Triumph of Therapeutic Discourse	p. 275
Summary	p. 279
The Therapeutic State	p. 280
Therapeutic Utilitarianism	p. 283
A Postmodern State?	p. 286
An Assessment of the Continuing Dialogue	p. 291
Therapeutic Coercion	p. 292
Legitimation Reconsidered	p. 297
The Problem of Consent	p. 300
The Paradox of Unintended Consequences	p. 304
Appendixes	p. 309
Notes	p. 329
Selected References	p. 383
Index	p. 391
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