On the concept of „therapy culture“ - functionalist, critical and the actor-oriented currents in theorizing the social role of knowledge about the human psyche2

This article explicates and systematizes the theoretical assumptions behind various approaches to conceptualizing the phenomenon of ?therapy culture?. Beginning with the definition of therapy culture as a process of disseminating knowledge from disciplines such as psychology, psychiatry, and psychotherapy, and their integration into various institutions and cultural spheres, the article focuses on three theoretical currents in conceptualizing this phenomenon. We begin with the ?functionalist? current, which developed from the 1960s to the 1980s, and is based on the presuppositions of Durkheimian functionalism. We continue with the ?critical? current, which views therapy culture as a mechanism for maintaining social domination. Finaly, we will explicate the theoretical presuppositions of the ?actor-oriented? current which sees therapy culture as a system of meaning that guides social interactions. We conclude by pointing to the possibility of combining the aforementioned theoretical currents into a unified conceptual model that could systematize existing research on therapy culture in the post-Yugoslav context and serve a heuristic role in generating future research hypotheses.