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The purpose of this paper is to sketch out what one can see as the emerging “therapeutic turn” in a wide range of areas of contemporary social life including education, especially in relation to understandings of vulnerability and social justice, and then poses the question of what emotional regime has accompanied the emergence of this “therapization” movement, making emotional life in schools the “object-target” for specific technologies of power.

The psychologization of social problems has been very much in evidence in the development of educational policies and practices – an approach which not only pathologizes social problems as individual psychological deficiencies or traits, but also obscures the recognition of serious structural inequalities and ideological commitments that perpetuate social injustices through educational policy and practice. In the present paper, the author adopts a different perspective, that of the history, sociology and politics of emotions and affects to show how and why the therapization of social justice is part of the conditions for the birth of particular forms of biopower in schools.

There is an urgent need to expose how psychologized approaches that present social justice as an individualizing responsibility are essentially depoliticizing vulnerability by silencing the shared complicities. It is argued, then, that it is crucial to pay attention to the political and structural dimensions of vulnerability.

Attending to the emotional regime of therapization of social justice has important implications to counter forms of biopower that work through processes of normalization.

An increasing number of migrants and refugees seeking asylum in Germany is challenging psychiatrists and psychotherapists in multiple ways. Different cultural belief systems on the causes of mental illness and their treatment have to be taken into consideration. The purpose of this study is to explore perceived causes of depression among Farsi-speaking migrants and refugees from Afghanistan and Iran, which represent two groups with a shared cultural heritage, but originating from very different regimes of mobility. Both are among the largest migrant groups coming to Germany over the past decade.

In total, 50 Iranian and 50 Afghan migrants and refugees, who arrived in Germany in the past 10 years were interviewed, using an unlabeled vignette presenting signs and symptoms of depression. The answers were then coded through inductive content analysis.

Among Iranians, there was a more significant number of causal attribution to Western psychiatric concepts, whereas Afghans attributed depression more often to the experience of being a refugee without referring to psychological concepts. These differences in attribution did, however, not affect the desire for a social distance toward depressed people. Nonetheless, a higher number of years spent in Germany was associated with less desire for social distance toward persons with depression among Afghans, but not among Iranians.

To the best of the knowledge, this is the first study examining perceived causes of depression with Farsi-speaking migrants in Germany and contributes to understanding tendencies in the perception of depression in non-Western migrant groups.

La question du sens, du but, de la place et de la forme d'une architecture de loisirs implique forcément de s'arrêter tout d'abord au contenu de l'expression en elle‐même. Si, par définition, on s'accorde encore relativement vite sur la notion d'architecture, l'accord est par contre plus difficile à réaliser en ce qui concerne la notion de loisirs. En portant l'accent sur les aspects quantitatifs, on fait trop facilement abstraction de l'acception qualitative de la notion et on ignore trop facilement aussi l'origine proprement dite de la notion, à savoir le temps de travail. Alors qu'estce done que les loisirs, ou mieux, comment déerire les loisirs? Le philo‐sophe allemand Habermas pense très laconiquement que la liberté des loisirs est avant tout une liberté de travail, et rien d'autre. L'apparence de liberté dans les loisirs est trompeuse; la liberté dans les loisirs s'épuise uniquement dans l'absence de travail. Le sociologue Scheuch, compatriote de Habermas, comprend les loisirs comme «symptôme d'un processus complexe de mutation qualitative de sociétés techniquement évoluées». D'après Scheuch, la compréhension individuelle respective des loisirs est déjà le pilier énonciateur d'un processus social multiple de développement. Il n'est pas inutile non plus rappeler rapidement, à propos de loisirs — désignés autrefois du terme oisiveté — que maintes personnes prétendaient que l'oisiveté est la mére de tous les vices. Le sociologue Suisse Hanhart apporte une définition bienvenue dans nos tentatives d'explication lorsqu'il demande de distinguer le temps restant par rapport au temps de travail déterminé par autrui de l'espace dans lequel on éprouve véritablement les loisirs. Par cette «psychologisation», l'interprétation de Hanhart ne se dérobe indubitablement pas a la discussion ultérieure, mais Hanhart fait beaucoup plus appel aux conditions formelles et substantielles pour prendre conscience des loisirs dans le cadre du temps libre. Simultanément, il oppose l'autodétermination, e'est‐à‐dire le pouvoir individuel de disposer pendant les loisirs, à l'hétérodétermination propre au temps de travail. Il existe bien entendu d'étroites limites à une émancipation des loisirs, ne seraitce tout d'abord que dans la mesure où le temps de travail laisse du temps libre, et non inversement. La sensation de loisirs ne peut done se manifester qu'en atteignant, à côté de la liberté du travail hétérodéterminé, à la séparation psychiquc, e'est‐à‐dire sensitive du temps de travail. Si les loisirs constituent aujourd'hui une sphère expérimentale quasiment indépendante du temps de travail, les conditions préalables en sont directement lisibles dans l'évolution historique du temps de travail, respectivement du temps libre.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the functioning of a mutual aid group for mental health in rural area and analyze their own strategies for the recovery of mental health, especially those focused on cooperation, social innovation and the strengthening of their own culture through coffee.

The qualitative approach was addressed through the thematic analysis, method to identify, analyze and report patterns within the data. For the selection of participants, the members of a mutual aid group called “Cooperativa de Mujeres' was selected. This group functions as an autonomous business organization in Risaralda, Colombia. They have accompanied people diagnosed with anxiety, depression and domestic violence. Six women were interviewed, between the ages of 18 and 62.

Two thematic nuclei are described: “One for all” made up of categories such as identification with the other, need for the other, being able to communicate, contributing to the group involuntarily and actions to help others. “All for one”, made up of categories such as growing together, welcoming individuals in their individuality from group dynamics, strengthening the relationship of the person with reality, strengthen from the experiences of others.

Mutual Aid Groups in mental health propose associative structures that they seek to oppose the barriers of historical exclusion in the labor field and in this way contribute to the fact that the models, although they have a long history, have been little studied with a view to their implementation by health systems.

Current research in the field of health should focus on recognizing the flaws of the current mental health model focused on medicalization, psychologization and institutionalization, and point to a greater commitment to intersectoral support for initiatives and scenarios that promote links, networks, autonomy and care for each other and the environment, where sustainability and social and economic growth are fundamental.

The transformative actions of cooperatives are configured with a fundamental element when it comes to generating spaces for the rehabilitation of mental health.

Components of a mutual aid group in rural areas are explored, which could serve to replicate said structures in similar scenarios, especially in territories where social inequities make recovery difficult, such as Colombia.

“Health literacy” refers to the knowledge and skills required to make optimal use of the health system. In the West, the question “how to live?” is increasingly answered by reference to medical and psychological norms and concepts: the concept of “health” has expanded enormously. Teaching migrants to become “health literate” is therefore a process of resocialisation or acculturation. If it is done without regard for their own ideas and values, it will be an attempt at assimilation – and like most such attempts, it will usually fail. If migrants are not consulted and involved in the design of their own health services, the services will not be optimally accessible and inclusive, which will lower the performance of the health system. This paper seeks to argue that becoming a “literate” user of Western health care involves learning a new morality.

Evidence is presented to illustrate the increasing medicalisation and psychologisation of life in the West and the argument that concepts of health are value‐based.

Migrants are not empty vessels simply waiting to be filled up by Western expertise; they have their own ideas and values, which may clash with those that underlie health care. Integration of migrants into health systems can only take place through dialogue, in which both sides show respect for each other's views. The confrontation with other ideas and values can enrich mainstream health care in the West.

The paper encourages readers to go beyond a purely technical interpretation of “health literacy” and consider its moral and political dimensions.

Based on ethnographic data and a textual analysis, this chapter highlights the process of “therapization” of Buddhism in Western countries, with a specific emphasis on Tibetan Buddhism in France. Referring to the paradigm of “political economy of health”, as developed in recent medical anthropology, it attempts to explore the relationships between two concepts – economics and health – that had previously been considered separately, in the context of Western Buddhism. Further, this chapter's aim is to expose a potential application of theoretical economic models in an anthropological approach of Buddhist diffusion and appropriation in the West.

This chapter contributes to the field of educational standardisation by analysing and discussing the relationship between risk conceptions, standards and subjectivation in education. The empirical case for investigation is the implementation of a new interdisciplinary topic in Norwegian curriculum, called ‘health and life skills’, a topic that has gained momentum in educational systems worldwide in recent decades. We perform a theoretical reading of policy and curriculum document through the perspective of Foucault's notion of governmentality. Our reading suggests understanding ‘health and life skills’ as a soft governance practice, instigating ‘standards of the self’ that direct and control the conduct of young people in the Norwegian curriculum. Furthermore, the chapter discusses how becoming a subject in modern education implies acquiring a set of standard skills derived from societally perceived risks thought to affect the mental and physical health of young people. Building on this analysis, we discuss if standards can be regarded as measures aimed at managing and safeguarding against societal risks, and the consequences this may have for subjectivation processes in education.