Personal Utopia: The “Good Life” in Popular Religion and Literature in Contemporary Sweden

Abstract

This article examines the discourse of the "good life" in popular religion and literature in contemporary Sweden. The results indicate that new spiritual movements, such as mindfulness and the Enneagram, place traditional transcendental goals within the individual, immanent self and that the utopian ideals, such as individual wellbeing and happiness, expressed in popular literature are to be achieved through changing individuals' attitudes rather than their material and structural circumstances. Furthermore, this understanding of the individual relies on a culturally based discourse in which medicalized, therapeutic language, what Michel Foucault called "bio-power", defines humanity and the human condition. This cultural discourse centers on the individual's potential and responsibility to change dysfunctional habits, situations, and relationships, while structural, contextual, and situational solutions are ignored. The Swedish popular literature and religion examined here both express this discourse and constitute an important new form of authority when it comes to articulating new utopian ideals in everyday life, at work, and in family life.

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“…In line with our findings is Enstedt and Hermansson's (2018) observation that the increased responsibility placed on individuals to build their happiness can have harmful effects by creating "utopian ideals" of self-mastery, while at the same time societal structures and issues such as inequality are sidestepped. Even worse, the risk could involve perpetuating and circulating a 'brutally normative' ideal of…”

“…The fact that this antinomy is present in both Finnish and Italian data suggests that the cultural contexts considered in this study might be undergoing a similar shift in the conceptualization of happiness as that noted by Enstedt and Hermansson (2018) in the concept of the good life in current Swedish society. While in the past a good life was more associated with religious concepts and, therefore, external circumstances, the increased reverence towards individuality in Western society has gradually shifted the focus towards the self.…”

“…More specifically, the shared narrative behind the corpus of self-help books relies on the underlying assumption that something is missing-happiness, success, one's purpose in life or wealth-and that the suggested course of action can "liquidate" these absences (Dolby 2005). Similarly, in their analysis of the contemporary popular discourse around the "good life" in Sweden, Enstedt and Hermansson (2018) reveal that the message conveyed by Scandinavian self-help books is that by taking control of our lives, and by changing our attitudes and actions according to the instructions given, we become better and happier people in spite of external circumstances.…”