In reading this, keep in mind that Chris Hedges is speaking to (readers within) several classes and strata in affluent countries, but in particular the U.S.
“We pay a variety of lifestyle advisers—[Neal] Gabler calls them ‘essentially drama coaches’—to help us look and feel like celebrities, to build around us the set for the movie [or ‘Reality’ TV series] of our own life. Martha Stewart built her financial empire, when she wasn’t insider trading, telling women how to create and decorate a set design for the perfect home. The realities within the home, the actual family relationships, are never addressed. Appearances make everything whole. Plastic surgeons, fitness gurus, diet doctors, therapists, life coaches, interior designers, and fashion consultants all, in essence, promise to make us happy, to make us celebrities [or like celebrities in the small worlds we inhabit on a daily basis]. And happiness comes, we are assured, with how we look and how we present ourselves to others [greatly facilitated and encouraged by camera cell phones, social media, etc.].” – Chris Hedges, in Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle (Nation Books, 2009).
I take exception to the inclusion of “therapists” in the list above, although of course there are bad or quack therapists and therapies, but I don’t think psychoanalytic therapy ignores “actual family relationships,” nor is it about “appearances,” indeed, it could be said to deal almost entirely with everything behind, outside or beyond appearances. And therapists are a far cry from being “lifestyle advisers,” in no way promising the analysand happiness!
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