Editor’s introduction to special section on the psychosocial effects of neoliberalism

Layton, Lynne

doi:10.1057/pcs.2013.26

Cited by 13 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Here, a genre of narratives that normalizes and valorizes reflexive individual agency runs aground on transitions that it cannot easily render coherent for the individual (e.g., death, loss and other experiences of contingent vulnerability). Faced with the threats posed to constituted identities by such transitions, ideals of individual autonomy may, in fact, encourage defensive emotional reactions, including (for example) the narrated disavowal of vulnerability (Layton 2014). Dealing with such clashes between culturally dominant narrative forms and problematic experiences of contingency is, however, a key part of what anthropologists have identified as the social function of a specific genre of narratives, which provide shared resources for negotiating and making sense of ''liminal'' transitions in which individual identities-but also the symbolic order itself-face disruption.…”

Section: Sensemaking Narrative and Liminalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Energy Biographies

Groves

Henwood

Shirani

et al. 2015

Science, Technology, & Human Values

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The problem of how to make the transition to a more environmentally and socially sustainable society poses questions about how such far-reaching social change can be brought about. In recent years, lifecourse transitions have been identified by a range of researchers as opportunities for policy and other actors to intervene to change how individuals use energy, taking advantage of such disruptive transitions to encourage individuals to be reflexive toward their lifestyles and how they use the technological infrastructures on which they rely. Such identifications, however, employ narratives of voluntary change that take an overly optimistic view of how individuals experience lifecourse transitions and ignore effects of experiences of unresolved or unsuccessful transitions. Drawing on interview data from the Energy Biographies project at Cardiff University, we explore three case studies where the effects of such unresolved transitions are significant. Using the concept of liminal transition as developed by Victor Turner, we examine instances where “progressive” narratives of energy use reduction clash with other “narrative genres” used to make sense of change. Such clashes show how narratives that view lifecourse transitions as opportunities ignore the challenges that such transitions may pose to efforts to construct or sustain identities.

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Section: Sensemaking Narrative and Liminalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Energy Biographies

Groves

Henwood

Shirani

et al. 2015

Science, Technology, & Human Values

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“…We must also shift the focus away from intra-individual factors to explain the etiology of emotional distress. There is a great need to develop policies and practices that counter the disconnect between the psychic and the social—a disconnect that neoliberalism reinforces (Layton, 2010, 2014a, 2014b, 2018). Thus, we agree with Rose (2009) that the central question to which we must respond is an ethical one.…”

Section: Conclusion: “Taming the Pharmakon”mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…From this vantage point, peoples’ needs are best met through the marketplace rather than through engagement in political life, for “markets constitute the greatest information processor known to mankind [ sic ] and never mislead participants about the truth” (Mirowski, 2015b, p.11). This point—that the market is not simply an “allocator of scarce resources” (Mirowski, 2017b, p. 6), but is in effect an epistemological machine that produces new modes of subjectivity (see also Layton, 2010, 2014a, 2014b)—will be central to our article.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The poison in the cure: Neoliberalism and contemporary movements in mental health

Cosgrove

Karter

2018

Theory & Psychology

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Neoliberalism reaches beyond economic policy and material conditions and reformulates the subject and psychological life and therefore is best understood as an attitude toward science, knowledge making, and subjectivity. In a neoliberal climate, markets give us truth and individuals are encouraged to be self-concerned agents rather than members of a polis. Thus, at the very moment that neoliberal policies transfer responsibility to individuals, there is a simultaneous increase in surveillance in order to reinstall certain patterns of human behavior. Mental health research and practice risk becoming commodities dedicated to enforcing this logic. In this article, we explore medical neoliberalism in some of its recent manifestations: global mental health interventions, routine depression screening, and the monitoring of social media to assess mental health. We also consider the ways in which popular reforms in the mental health field are founded on neoliberal assumptions and may be abetting these ideological aims.

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“…Over the years, the journal's pages have hosted an array of Lacanian, Kleinian, and relational theorists whose analyses of neoliberal versions of collective and individual subjectivity have charted the costs of neoliberalism for public life and private wellbeing, as well as clearly suggesting some of the psychic barriers to progressive social change (see, for example, our two special sections on the psychosocial effects of neoliberalism, Layton, 2014aLayton, , 2014b.…”

Section: Pcs and The Political Momentmentioning

confidence: 99%