3 Cooling Down Passion
(or: the end of self-improvement)

>> The Charismatic Counselors

The new language that Freud invented to describe and steer the mind very soon became part of popular culture. The psychoanalytic and therapeutic style is one of the greatest success stories of cultural encoding in the 20th century. Today, everyone potentially possesses cultural techniques to standardize and manage his or her private self and intimate relationships, so that a progressive, daily work of improving our feelings is ensured. The psycho-slang with which we describe ourselves and others is a language of control and optimization fed into a gigantic self-improvement industry.

In individual sessions on all three days, 11 auguring advisors & 1 advisor to the advisors offer mantic ideas on “Cooling Down Passion”. Presented here is the type of charismatic counseling that relies on the presence of the counselor, his suggestive (un)certainty, and his lack of interest in pragmatic suggestions, recommendations, and instructions.
Turn symptoms into diagnoses and diagnoses into prognoses!

On the three days in the parlamonium, the Israeli cultural sociologist Eva Illouz broadcasts instructions to immunize oneself against self-observation’s promises of salvation:
It’s time to stop wanting to improve yourselves!
Controlling oneself means controlling others!

Feel less!