Description
Book SynopsisSignificant Emotions is a piercing examination of the rising use of emotional signifiers in public debate and the rhetoric of an increasingly expansive array of social problems. Building on ideas developed in Ashley Frawley''s previous book, Semiotics of Happiness, it examines in detail the emotional turn' across the social sciences and the broader cultural rise of the age of emotion' and its influence on how we talk about and approach new social issues.
The book explores the rise of supposedly positive' emotional signifiers that have gained prominence as powerful causes of and solutions to nearly every social illfrom promoting self-esteem, happiness and mindfulness to concerns for well-being and mental health. Conceptualizing the rise and comparative decline of these emotional signifiers as cycles of discovery, adoption, expansion, and exhaustion, the book argues that rather than calling into question one or another of these signifiers, it is necessary to pene
Trade Review
This book offers an insightful account of the historical development of the wellness industry and the creation of vulnerable subjectivities in contemporary societies. It will appeal to many readers curious to learn more about the complex structuring of emotions and the self in the modern era. -- Mark Cieslik, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Northumbria University, UK
Table of Contents
List of Figures List of Tables Acknowledgements Introduction Part I: Context, Process, Rhetoric 1. Emotional Turns 2: Emotion After the Death of the Subject 3. An Open Subject? 4. Waves of Emotion Part II: Case Studies 5. Mind(fulness) of the Gap 6. Mindfulness from Adoption to Exhaustion 7. A Prehistory of Mental Health in Higher Education 8. The Discovery of a Problem 9. Adopting, Expanding, but not Exhausting Conclusion Methods Appendix References Index
