Therapy culture, identity and neurobiology

Abstract

This article is an attempt to analyse the so-called culture of therapy in the context of two completely separate sciences - sociology of culture and neurobiology. The author’s deliberations on this subject are preceded by an introduction concerning the problems resulting from combining separate scientific paradigms, in particular the problem of reductionism and emergence of social phenomena. Further, the author puts forward a thesis that the culture of therapy is the result of anomie, whose direct cause is the lack of cultural homeostasis. The most visible indicator of this is the difficulty individuals have in constructing their identity. The culture of therapy seems to be an attempt to find an antidote to this state of affairs. The article concludes with a reflection on the competences necessary to construct a relatively coherent identity in the contemporary world.