9780230_201361_01_previii.pdf 10/21/09 3:16 PM Page i Worked Up Selves 10.1057/9780230246768 - Worked Up Selves, Elaine Swan Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to University of California, Los Angeles - Biol Chem - PalgraveConnect - 2011-04-14 9780230_201361_01_previii.pdf 10/21/09 3:16 PM Page ii Also by Elaine Swan GENDER AND DIVERSITY IN MANAGEMENT: A Concise Introduction (with Caroline Gatrell) 10.1057/9780230246768 - Worked Up Selves, Elaine Swan Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to University of California, Los Angeles - Biol Chem - PalgraveConnect - 2011-04-14 9780230_201361_01_previii.pdf 10/21/09 3:16 PM Page iii Worked Up Selves Personal Development Workers, Self-Work and Therapeutic Cultures Elaine Swan Senior Teaching Fellow, Lancaster University Management School 10.1057/9780230246768 - Worked Up Selves, Elaine Swan Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to University of California, Los Angeles - Biol Chem - PalgraveConnect - 2011-04-14 9780230_201361_01_previii.pdf 10/21/09 3:16 PM Page iv © Elaine Swan 2010 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2010 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries ISBN-13: 978-0-230-20136-1 hardback This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne 10.1057/9780230246768 - Worked Up Selves, Elaine Swan Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to University of California, Los Angeles - Biol Chem - PalgraveConnect - 2011-04-14 9780230_201361_01_previii.pdf 10/21/09 3:16 PM Page v To Steve 10.1057/9780230246768 - Worked Up Selves, Elaine Swan Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to University of California, Los Angeles - Biol Chem - PalgraveConnect - 2011-04-14 This page intentionally left blank 10.1057/9780230246768 - Worked Up Selves, Elaine Swan Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to University of California, Los Angeles - Biol Chem - PalgraveConnect - 2011-04-14 9780230_201361_01_previii.pdf 10/21/09 3:16 PM Page vii Contents Acknowledgements viii Chapter 1 Changing Selves 1 Chapter 2 History of Working the Self 32 Chapter 3 Therapeutic Cultures: Practices of Social Control 50 or Self-Creation? Chapter 4 Cultural Representations of Therapeutic Cultures 70 Chapter 5 Expert Relations 100 Chapter 6 Transformations of the Self 140 Chapter 7 Getting in Touch with Their Feelings? 173 Chapter 8 Worked Up Selves 206 Bibliography 225 Index 251 vii 10.1057/9780230246768 - Worked Up Selves, Elaine Swan Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to University of California, Los Angeles - Biol Chem - PalgraveConnect - 2011-04-14 9780230_201361_01_previii.pdf 10/21/09 3:16 PM Page viii Acknowledgements Thanks to Paul Milner, Virgina Thorp and Ursula Gavin at Palgrave, particularly to Paul for all his patience. I would like to thank the Women’s PhD Pressure Group for their emotional support, and love of Happy Hour cocktails: Sue Eccles, Carole Elliott, Caroline Gatrell, Ellie Hamilton, Valerie Stead, Sharon Turnbull and Helen Woodruffe. A special thanks to Caroline Gatrell, Ellie Hamilton and Valerie Stead for reading and commenting on chapters and for being such inspiring academics and friends. Thank you too, Andy Bailey, my colleague in MDD for providing much needed good humour and practical support over the years. A big thanks to Jackie Stacey for supervising my PhD, providing unstinting encouragement and warm support over a very long time. A special mention goes to David Cripps and Sarah Vogel for their interest in the book and debates on therapeutic cultures. Furthermore, I’d like to thank all of the practitioners interviewed for this research, who gave up their time to share their insights and experiences so gen- erously with me. Thanks to Sparky and the late departed Gretchen for being so furry. Finally, I am indebted to Steve Fox for his untiring support and vigorous confidence in me. viii 10.1057/9780230246768 - Worked Up Selves, Elaine Swan Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to University of California, Los Angeles - Biol Chem - PalgraveConnect - 2011-04-14 9780230_201361_02_cha01.pdf 10/21/09 3:17 PM Page 1 1 Changing Selves Introduction One must recognise that the desire to invent a life is no longer evidence of narcissistic self-involvement or an emancipator countercultural impulse, but rather is increasingly required as a new form of ‘immaterial labour’ – mental, social and emo- tional tasks – required for participation in the labour market. (McGee, 2005: 24) This quote encapsulates the topic of this book: the emergence of new modes of work and workers. Thus Worked Up Selves is an exploration of the growth of personal development, a form of immaterial labour or more precisely, ‘self-work’ (Tipton, 1983; Heelas, 2002; Chappell et al., 2003). In personal development this self-work involves self-exploration, self- expression, self-reflection, self-improvement and experimentation with appearance, capacities, behaviours, emotions and thinking. Worked Up Selves focuses, in particular, on the personal development workers who help people to undertake this type of labour outlined above. These types of workers include management trainers; life- performance- business- and executive-coaches; learning consultants; personal development consultants; facilitators, and management developers. Up to now, this group have been somewhat neglected as an occupational group in organisational theory and wider social theory. A useful way to understand this proliferating type of worker and the work they do is to draw on Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of ‘cultural inter- mediaries’ (Bourdieu, 1984). This is a term introduced by Bourdieu to describe a new category of middle-class worker emerging in the past thirty years – post-industrial service occupations. These roles involve 1 10.1057/9780230246768 - Worked Up Selves, Elaine Swan Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to University of California, Los Angeles - Biol Chem - PalgraveConnect - 2011-04-14