Samopomoć kao kulturalni fenomen: kontekstualni aspekti nastanka i razvoja knjiga za samopomoć i psihoterapijskog diskurza
Self-help as a cultural phenomenon: Contextual aspects of birth and development of self-help books and psychotherapeutic discourse

Summary/Abstract: This paper analyses the concept of self-help as a cultural phenomenon. It is studied through self-help books as texts that give advices for almost every aspects of life. Considering there is a hiperproduction and proliferation of the self-help discourse, not just in literature but also through institutions, this paper analyses conditions that enabled birth and development of such a specific outlook on life. This paper demonstrates the ways in which the tradition of American Protestantism from the late 15th and in the 16th and 17th centuries laid the foundations of the culture of self-help. It examines the extent to which work, persistence and dedication to God corresponded to the impending ethics of self-reflection and perseverance. Examples show ways in which the institutionalization of psychological discourse and cultural practices in the 20th century participated in the promotion of popular psychology in everyday life which resulted in the establishment of psychotherapeutic discourse. However, there is a paradoxical situation - on the one hand such texts are sold in very large numbers of copies, while on the other hand there is no expert analysis of the ways in which self-help books find their place in society by shaping the perception of reality. Therefore, this paper aims to draw attention to this ubiquitous cultural phenomenon.

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