Positive Psychology and the legitimation of individualism

Abstract

Positive Psychology (PP) has been firmly institutionalized as a worldwide phenomenon, especially in the last decade. Its promise of well-being has captured many people's longings for solutions in times of significant social uncertainty, instability, and insecurity. The field, nevertheless, has been severely criticized on multiple fronts. This article argues that positive psychology is characterized by a narrow sense of the social as well as by a strong individualistic bias that reflects the core beliefs of neoliberal ideology. In this regard, the present paper aims to illustrate the extent to which individualism is essential to understanding the theoretical and empirical foundations of PP's conceptualization of happiness. Additionally, the paper questions whether positive psychology and its individualist conception of human well-being are not themselves contributing to sustain and create some of the dissatisfaction to which they promise a solution.

The Psychology of Neoliberalism and the Neoliberalism of Psychology

“…In the face of such anxiety, successful behavior becomes a matter of affect regulation. One must pursue and amplify positive feelings while avoiding, reframing, or down‐regulating negative feelings (Cabanas, ).…”

“…Common to these perspectives is the idea that greater freedom—whether autonomy at work; novel experiences; or supportive, non‐controlling relationships that provide a secure base for exploration—promotes individual flourishing, personal fulfillment, achievement of one's dreams, and actualization of one's potential. As scholars have noted of positive psychology (Cabanas, ; see also Becker & Maracek, ), the emphasis on growth and personal fulfillment in these influential theoretical perspectives not only reflects, but also serves to legitimize neoliberalism and associated selfways.…”

Decolonial theory and disability studies: On the modernity/coloniality of ability

“…In its abstraction of organism from sociocultural and historical context and its tendency to understand health and illness at the level of (increasingly microscopic) bodily processes moderated (or not) by social forces, the medical model resonates with and reinforces the individualist underpinnings of hegemonic psychological science (Jackman, 1996;Sampson, 1977Sampson, , 1981. The medical model fits especially well within the contemporary era of neoliberal individualism (see Cabanas, 2018) and its model of society as an aggregate of "free agents who are at liberty to engage in social relations based on some more-or-less rational calculation of costs and benefits" (Adams et al, 2015, p. 220). Informed by the medical model, psychological science portrays disability in contrast to this experience of freedom from constraint, as a disruption to the essential capacity for unrestrained and independent action, or as a deviation from the cultural mandate to be "solely responsible for [one's] own outcomes and positioned as free of responsibility to others" (Tomlinson & Lipsitz, 2013, p. 8).…”

“…However, the positive psychology movement is not without critics. Several authors have critiqued the ahistorical, apolitical, and universalist (perhaps even imperialist) model of human development that informs many perspectives of positive psychology (e.g., Becker & Marecek, 2008a, 2008bBinkley, 2014;Cabanas, 2018;Christopher & Hickinbottom, 2008). Specific to present purposes is the observation that positive psychology reflects and reproduces neoliberal individualist constructions of persons/humans as unrestrained, market-based agents Becker & Marecek, 2008a;Cabanas, 2018;Sugarman, 2015).…”

“…Several authors have critiqued the ahistorical, apolitical, and universalist (perhaps even imperialist) model of human development that informs many perspectives of positive psychology (e.g., Becker & Marecek, 2008a, 2008bBinkley, 2014;Cabanas, 2018;Christopher & Hickinbottom, 2008). Specific to present purposes is the observation that positive psychology reflects and reproduces neoliberal individualist constructions of persons/humans as unrestrained, market-based agents Becker & Marecek, 2008a;Cabanas, 2018;Sugarman, 2015). The neoliberal individualist roots of positive psychology approaches are evident in an emphasis on a self-determined and self-interested pursuit of happiness (Becker & Marecek, 2008a, 2008bBinkley, 2014;Christopher & Hickinbottom, 2008).…”