Spirituality Gender Selfhood Woodhead 08

Spirituality, Gender, and Expressive Selfhood
Author(s): Eeva Sointu and Linda Woodhead

Source: Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 47, No. 2 (Jun., 2008), pp. 259276
Published by: Wiley on behalf of Society for the Scientific Study of Religion
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20486911
Accessed: 28-07-2016 22:53 UTC
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://about.jstor.org/terms
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted
digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about
JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Wiley are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,
preserve and extend access to Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion
This content downloaded from 181.28.174.40 on Thu, 28 Jul 2016 22:53:33 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
Spirituality, Gender, and Expressive Selfhood

EEVA SOINTU
LINDA WOODHEAD
This article discusses contemporary spiritualities,focusing in particular on the recent growth ofpractices attending
to "mind, body, and sprit" and centered on the goal of "holistic well-being." We argue that the growing popularity
of such "holistic spirituality" since the 1980s can be greatly illuminated by reference to Charles Taylor's account
of the expressive mode of modern selfhood. Taylor's account is limited, however, by its inability to explain why
women are disproportionately active within the sphere of holistic spirituality. By paying closer attention to gender,
we seek to refine Taylor's approach and to advance our understanding of contemporary spirituality. Drawing on
findings from two qualitative studies of holistic spirituality and health carried out in the United Kingdom, this
article offers an analysis of what the "subjective turn" may mean for women. We argue that holistic spiritualities
align with traditional spheres and representations offemininity, while simultaneously supporting and encouraging
a move awayfrom selfless to expressive selfhood. By endorsing and sanctioning "living life for others" and "living
life for oneself," holistic spiritualities offer a way of negotiating dilemmas of selfliood that face many women
and some men-in late modern contexts.
INTRODUCTION
This article is premised on the conviction that in order to understand changes that have taken
place in the Western religious landscape in recent decades, it is also necessary to take seriously
issues of selfhood and identity. We focus on what we term holistic spiritualities, by which we
mean those forms of practice involving the body, which have become increasingly visible since
the 1980s, and that have as their goal the attainment of wholeness and well-being of "body, mind,
and spirit." Such practices are now pervasive within New Age and, to a large extent, neopagan
communities, and extend beyond them to shade into the realm of complementary and alternative
health care practices (CAM). Holistic spiritualities are roughly coterminous with what Heelas and
Woodhead (2005) refer to as "subjective-life" spiritualities, and represent the latest and probably
most widespread manifestation of the broad historical trajectory of "spirituality," as that emerges
in self-conscious distinction from religion from the 19th century onward (Schmidt 2005).
The growth and numerical significance of spirituality in Europe and North America is be
ginning to be established. A number of recent studies suggest that the number of active, highly
committed, regular participants stands at around 2-5 percent of the population (for United States,
see Roof 1999; for United Kingdom, see Heelas and Woodhead 2005); that the level of adherence
(indicated by those claiming to be "spiritual not religious") stands at around 10-20 percent (for
Europe, see Barker 2004; for United States, see Hood 2005; Marler and Hadaway 2002; Zinnbauer
et al. 1997); and that the level of belief in "some sort of a spirit or life force" (World Values Sur
vey) or "God as something within each person rather than something out there" (RAMP) lies
somewhere between 20 percent and 40 percent (Barker 2004; Gill, Hadaway, and Marler 1998).
Generally speaking, levels are higher in the United States and northern Europe than in southern
Europe (Barker 2004; Houtman and Aupers 2008). On the basis of in-depth research in the town
of Kendal, in the United Kingdom, Heelas and Woodhead (2005) find that women make up 80
percent of those active in spirituality, both as practitioners and participants, while Houtman and
Eeva Sointu is Assistant Professor in the Sociology Department at Smith College, Northampton, MA.
Linda Woodhead is Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Lancaster University, Lancaster.
Correspondence should be addressed to Eeva Sointu, Sociology Department, 106 TylerAnnex, Smith College, Northamp
ton, MA 01063. E-mail. esointu@smith.edu
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (2008) 47(2):259-276

?a 2008 The Society for the Scientific Study of Religion
260 JOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION

Aupers's (2008) analysis of the World Values Surveys also finds a strong correlation between
female gender and affinity with spirituality.
The cultural trends acted out in the milieu of holistic spirituality are not restricted to this arena.
Holistic spirituality is itself only one, quite specialized, sector exemplifying much wider trends in
contemporary culture that involve conceptualizing the person holistically. Holistic spiritualities
are growing in significance in the context of a culture that conceptualizes life as interconnected
(Martin 1994). Complementary and alternative medicines represent one of the earliest and most
important manifestations of the growing significance of holistic conceptualizations of personhood,
and their importance is still increasing. In addition, holistic conceptualizations of the person have
established powerful footholds within the beauty industry, the hotel and leisure industry, and
the spheres of marketing, advertising, retailing, and publishing-especially, but not exclusively,
where activities are directed toward a female clientele (Besecke 2005; Gimlin 2002; Puttick 2003).
Moving beyond a female audience, the influence of holistic ideas of the self is also increasingly
evident in mainstream public and private education and health care (Best 1996; Heelas 2006), as
well as in the workplace, not least in "New Age-" style management trainings (Bovbjerg 2001;
Heelas 2002; Salamon 2000, 2001, 2002).

According to Charles Taylor (1989, 1991, 2002, 2005), however, the underlying source of
such lively and varied contemporary activities runs deeper still. The religious sphere, along with
many other areas of contemporary social life, is today permeated by an "ethic of authenticity"
coupled with a "principle of originality" that together purport that "[b]eing true to myself means
being true to my own originality, which is something only I can articulate and discover" (Taylor
1994:31). Today, many people conceptualize themselves as beings with a "soul" or a "core self,"
which is seen to direct a person toward a meaningful life and that needs to be heeded if life is to
be both socially normal and individually fulfilling (Furedi 2004; Rose 1999; Taylor 1989, 1991,
1994). In this context, instead of being based on tradition or coercion, "[t]he religious life or
practice that I become a part of not only must be my choice, but must speak to me; it must make
sense in terms of my spiritual development as I understand this" (Taylor 2002:94). For Taylor, the
"soft relativism" (2002:89) of "practices that link spirituality and therapy" (2002:107) emerges
in the context of "expressivist individualism" (Taylor 1989); a trend that shapes and imbues not
only many contemporary social practices, but also our very understandings of selfhood today.
Building on Taylor's insights about the close links between religious change and modern
representations of selfhood, this article seeks to go deeper than he does in exploring forms of
contemporary spiritual practice that capture expressivist individualism. The underlying question
we are addressing is why holistic self-spiritualities appeal to so many women. By studying

practices and discourses within the sphere of spiritual and quasi-spiritual activities centered on
mind, body, and spirit, we seek to illustrate how quests for holistic well-being capture important
changes in religious and spiritual practice related to contemporary negotiations of selfhood. We

move beyond Taylor by showing that his theoretical account of modern selfhood and its religious
expressions needs to be developed further in order to do justice to some of the contemporary

developments that it seeks to interpret and explain. Our focus becomes women's subjectivities as
we locate the rise of holistic spiritualities in the context of women's changing lives. We argue that
the significance of holistic spiritualities relates to what these practices offer women in the context
of representations of femininity. In what follows, femininity is taken to refer to "a set of structures
and conditions that delimit the typical situation of being a woman in a particular society, as well
as the typical way in which this situation is lived by women themselves" (Young 1990:143-44,
emphasis original).
Holistic spiritualities are not inherently gendered. Yet their meaning and significance emerges
in the context of what it means to be a man or a woman in a particular society at a particular
time. Although holistic spiritualities appeal to different constituencies in relation to which they
may have different meanings, we suggest that at the current time many holistic spiritualities
capture and enable women's desire to move away from traditional roles ascribed to feminine
subjects. More specifically, holistic spiritualities can be seen to relate to one of the key dilemmas
SPIRITUALITY, GENDER, AND EXPRESSIVE SELFHOOD 261
facing women today, which Beck and Beck-Gernsheim (2002:54-84) characterize as the dilemma
between "living life for oneself' and "living life for others." This is not to say that men are not
involved in holistic spiritualities or that men could not use these practices to negotiate and perhaps
subvert the demands of dominant masculinities. Many men also seek well-being, and may be
looking to challenge traditional representations of masculinity through their involvement. While
the question of how holistic spiritualities relate to traditional masculinities is an interesting and
important one, it is not one we address here, chiefly because the preponderance of women within
holistic spirituality makes that issue more pressing as we struggle to understand spirituality's
growing appeal.
Through analyzing the significance of contemporary holistic spiritualities in the context of
the embodied identities of those who turn to these activities, we move beyond the gender-blind
standpoint of Taylorian accounts that privilege an implicitly male model of Romanticism as an

ideal type of expressivism, and that tend to criticize contemporary "therapeutic" manifestations
of expressivism as individualistic if not "narcissistic" deviations from the higher ideal (Bellah et
al. 1985; Taylor 1989). By interpreting Taylor's insights within a framework that takes account
of gender in a more explicit and critical fashion, we hope to enhance their ability to illuminate
recent shifts in the religious landscape.
BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY

This article draws on findings from two recent studies of holistic well-being practices carried
out in the United Kingdom. The first is a locality study titled The Kendal Project: Patterns of the
Sacred in Contemporary Society carried out in Kendal in northern England (population 28,000;
Heelas and Woodhead 2005). Using a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods, the aim of
this collaborative research project was to map, count, and investigate every public religious and
spiritual activity whose primary purpose was engagement with the sacred. The most intensive
phase of research took place between October 2000 and June 2002 and it involved two full-time
researchers and three academics from Lancaster University, of whom Linda Woodhead was one.
Research quickly established that, after Christianity, holistic spirituality was by far the largest form
of associational activity related to the sacred, with 126 distinct groups and one-to-one practices
with a spiritual dimension being identified-ranging from aromatherapy to yoga. Women were
found to be preponderant at all levels-both as participants and practitioners, facilitators and
organizers, and they outnumbered men by around 4:1. Nearly all were white, and were educated
at least to B.A. level, with a strong bias toward the arts and humanities. This article draws on
previously unpublished data from the Kendal Project, particularly from field notes and interview
transcripts from the holistic milieu. The field notes were made mainly by one of the researchers,
Ben Seel, and record his participant observation of a wide range of different group activities within
the holistic milieu-ranging from yoga classes, to Shiatsu classes, to a "True Vision" group whose
purpose was to improve eyesight. The groups were selected because their leaders or facilitators
self-identified their practices as having an explicitly spiritual-as opposed to merely physical or
mental health-aspect. Around 100 semi-structured and less-formal interviews were also carried
out with leaders and members of these groups, and with other individuals active in the holistic
milieu in Kendal.
The other study informing this article-a doctoral dissertation titled In Search of Wellbeing:
Reflecting on the Use of Alternative and Complementary Medicines-was undertaken between
2000 and 2004 by Eeva Sointu also in northern England, and in particular in the city of Lancaster
(population 47,000; Sointu 2005a). This study was independent of the Kendal study, and concerned
the use and practice of alternative and complementary health practices. It involved 31 in-depth
interviews with both providers and clients of various forms of alternative and complementary
medicine (14 clients and 17 providers; 27 women, 4 men). The focus of the research was on
outlining and theorizing how those involved experienced, evaluated, and understood the different

practices they accessed. The interview themes were formulated on the basis of social-scientific
approaches to the use of alternative and complementary health practices, which identify these
practices as enabling and enforcing experiences of agency, control, and empowerment in addition
to addressing health concerns (Astin 1998; Kelner and Wellman 1997; McGuire 1988; Sharma
1992; Wiles and Rosenberg 2001 ). In order to understand varying motivations for use, the study
also involved a wide selection of therapeutic approaches as well as differing health-related com
plaints. Most of the interviewees claimed a middle-class background and had professional or
semi-professional qualifications. The average age of the interviewees was 50, with the youngest
participant being 34 and the oldest 81. As such, the sample of interviewees reflected the general
socioeconomic and gender characteristics associated with the use of alternative and complemen
tary medicines (Kelner and Wellman 1997; Thomas, Nicholl, and Coleman 2001; Vincent and
Furnham 1996; Wiles and Rosenberg 2001). Following findings that women dominate the sphere
of well-being activities (Heelas and Woodhead 2005; Thomas, Nicholl, and Coleman 2001), the
study focused chiefly, though not exclusively, on the experiences of women practitioners and
users. Analysis of women's experiences was also linked to the view that it was necessary to
conceptualize health practices as acquiring their significance in the context of the gendered and
embodied identities of those involved.
SETTING THE SCENE: THE SEARCH FOR WELLBEING OF BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT
Louise is 50 years old. She is self-employed and lives in northwest England with her 10-year
old daughter. Her holistic provider, June, is a homeopath, who also uses bodywork techniques to
treat her clients. However, it is not just physiological health that Louise seeks from her practitioner.
Rather, she turned to a practitioner at a time of self-assessed emotional need.

I'd just broken-up with my partner at that time. My neck hurt, I met her [the practitioner] at a party and I just
thought I need a hand with my emotional state or my wellbeing. So she's taken me through that... she kind of
stabilizes the relationships, heartbreaks really.
Consultations that are felt to encompass physical unease as well as emotional issues are
important to Louise not just in terms of medical health, but an overarching sense of well-being.
I just feel like I'm being treated on a whole number of different levels. And it's also my one hour a week where I
pay for it, and therefore I know the attention is totally for me. And I can just present to her whatever is relevant
for me ... I'm her client and she is the "sorter-outer" . . . It's just completely me-centred, which is excellent.
Louise speaks of the time she spends with June as characterized by a sense of acceptance:
"Nothing I say or nothing I do seems to scare or shock her [yeah]. She'll just say, 'oh that's
very interesting.' I guess it's quite liberating in that way." Louise feels embraced and accepted in
the well-being consultation. The physical touch of the provider, who offers massage therapy as
part of her suite of treatments, reinforces this sense of connection. The consultation room, within
June's own home, is a safe space in which Louise can feel and air personal issues, confess, and
be "liberated." The "me-centered" appearance or Louise's involvement should not, however, be
allowed to veil the more relational dimensions of the practice. Louise says she gains "clarity" in
relation to a variety of everyday concerns, including relationship "issues." This clarity is facilitated
by the provider, yet ultimately springs from Louise's feeling that holistic consultations result in
her being more attuned to herself, her own experiences, emotions, and relationships. Rather than
being defined by what others think and expect of her, she gains a new perspective on her "own"
wishes, desires, hopes, and commitments.
Louise is not alone. A diverse set of holistic practices have emerged in an array of contexts in
contemporary Western societies. For example, the number of people, primarily women, turning to

different holistic health practices-including alternative and complementary medicines-has been
rising rapidly since the 1980s across the Western world (Cant and Sharma 1999; Goldstein 2002;
Sointu 2005b, 2006a, 2006b; Thomas 2001). Around 50 percent of Americans are thought to have
tried some form of complementary medicine (Goldstein 2003; Ruggie 2004; Winnick 2005), and
in the United Kingdom the yearly use of the most established alternative and complementary
health practices is thought to involve around one-third of the adult population (Thomas, Nicholl,
and Coleman 2001). Motivations underlying the use can be extremely varied. Some turn to holistic
practices in the face of terminal or chronic illness, while others use them for more general health
maintenance (Wiles and Rosenberg 2001:211). Much of the use is consumerist in character, at
least in the sense that clients pay for what they receive, although this is less common in group
settings and with some practices that involve an explicit spiritual element. What different practices
offer can be as varied as the motivations underlying their adoption. Practices can, for example,
be conceptualized as "treats" that relax the busy individual and that can be given to friends and
relatives as gifts (Thomas, Nicholl, and Coleman 2001), or as serious stops in the journey of a
spiritual seeker. Some aim solely to lower a person's blood pressure or ease a troubled mind,
while others help bind a close-knit community (e.g., Berger 1998 on Wicca), or become integral
to political activism (e.g., Salomonsen 2001 on the Reclaiming Collective).
Despite their diversity, recent research highlights significant points of connection between
different forms of holistic practice. Many alternative and complementary health consultations
construct clients in a particular manner: as empowered and knowledgeable, and as responsible for
their experiences and perceptions about unease. The emphasis on self-responsibility is common
also in group settings; a sign posted on the wall by the True Vision group in Kendal proclaimed:
"RESPONSE-ABILITY." Accordingly, questions of empowerment, agency, and control are often

identified as central to the growth of holistic health practices. Indeed, the rise of the holistic
health sphere also relates to wider societal processes that involve the emergence of the "proactive,
empowered, and responsible 'client"' (Hughes 2004:25; see also Stacey 1997) who rejects the
Parsonian "sick role" by choosing health practices that enable and encourage personal meaning
making and agency, and that conceptualize the person more holistically than mainstream forms
of medicine and religion may be felt to do (Astin 1998; Kelner 2003; Kelner and Wellman 1997;
McGuire 1988; Powell and Hewitt 2002; Ruggie 2004; Sharma 1992; Sointu 2006b; Vincent and
Furnham 1996; 1997; Wiles and Rosenberg 2001).
Thus, the proliferation of holistic practices, whether explicitly or implicitly spiritual, takes
place within the context of wider issues and inflections of selfhood and identity. Indeed, the
rise of alternative and complementary health practices, and changes in the spiritual landscapes
of contemporary societies, can be seen to be related by way of a shared goal of reproducing
understandings of selfhood as active, responsible, self-aware, and empowered to make changes
in life. The rhetoric that guides these contemporary projects of the self is of the "discovery" and
"getting in touch with" a "core self '-the "real me" that is more essential than what others would
have me to be. In what follows we focus on the ways in which holistic spiritualities thus resonate
and reproduce wider societal trends in relation to the self and identity, taking Charles Taylor's
reflections on the "subjective turn" as the starting point of our analysis.
CHARLES TAYLOR AND "THE EXPRESSIVIST TURN"
What Taylor terms the "subjective turn" (Taylor 1989, 1991, 1994) has already provided
scholars with a useful means of conceptualizing forms of spiritual practice today (Heelas 1996;
Heelas and Woodhead 2005). The idea of the subjective-or "expressive"-turn locates contem
porary identities in a historical context, and outlines the importance of ideas of inner originality
and authenticity in the formation of modern Western selfhood.
In Sources of the Self (1989) Taylor begins his account of expressivism with the Romantics
and their "philosophy of nature as source ..,. a force, an elan vital running through the world,

which emerges in our own inner impulses" (1989:373, emphasis added). Unlike the Deists, for
whom the natural order resided outside the self, for the Romantics there is only internal access
by way of sentiments. Thus expressivism assumes first that there is such a fundamental, unifying
basis of reality; second, that life is integrally connected to this basis; third that it is fundamentally
good.
The next feature that Taylor isolates is self-expression. It is a measure of how important this
is that he follows Steven Tipton (1982) and Robert Bellah and the other authors of Habits of the
Heart (1985)-and before them, Talcott Parsons-in naming this entire mode of modern selfhood
"expressive." For Taylor, the "paradigm vehicle" (1989:376) of expressivist selfhood is the artistic
self-expression of Romanticism, in which art becomes the means for realizing creative genius.
What has changed in the intervening period is that today "this kind of self-orientation seems
to have become a mass phenomenon" (Taylor 2002:80). Nevertheless, for Taylor, the paradigm
remains "art [which] is not imitation, but expression" (1989:376-77), and the icon remains the
(male) Romantic genius.

Taylor goes on to point out that the ideal of self-expression presupposes that there is an
inner depth of truth and a core of authenticity to be accessed and articulated within each person.
Expressivism assumes that: "We are creatures with inner depths; with partly unexplored and
dark interiors" (1989:111). Authentic selfhood derives from paying attention to a wisdom that
is understood to reside within, and getting in touch with these inner depths through what Taylor
refers to as "intimate contact with oneself' (1991:27). The value of such contact, and the self
expression that it feeds, lies in the fact that the inner self is unique to that self. To quote Taylor
again: "I am called upon to live my life in this way, and not in imitation of anyone else's. But
this gives a new importance to being true to myself. If I am not, I miss the point of my life,
I miss what being human is for me" (Taylor 1991:29). Thus the ideal of authenticity assumes
both the uniqueness of each self, and the importance of a self-determining freedom that allows
unrestricted access to the wisdom within and to its expression. Emphasizing this self-discovered
authenticity limits the power of traditional authority and the significance of the ideal of a common
good. The boundaries of collective good are shaped around what the person-in his or her unique
truth-desires and accepts (Taylor 1991:29).

Developing more critical reflections on the expressivist turn, Taylor goes on to speak of
how Romanticism sought to reconcile "radical autonomy" with nature, and individualism with
"the All." It did so, he suggests, by way of a millenarian hope in which we "break out of our
original integration into the great current of life, to enter a phase of division and opposition,
followed by a return to unity at a higher level" (1989:388). Once we get to the 20th century,
however, and particularly since the 1960s, there is a falling away from the expressive ideal in
its fullness: "The most frivolous and self-indulgent forms of the human potential movement in
the United States today can't give us the measure of the aspiration to expressive fulfilment as we
find it, for instance, in Goethe and Arnold" (1989:511). What we are left with, Taylor suggests,
is a degraded elevation of the importance of feeling and self-determining freedom: "The idea
that I am free when I decide for myself what concerns me, rather than being shaped by external
influences" (1991:27), and, worst of all, an elevation of the ideal of self-fulfilment. The result,
according to Taylor, is an unhealthy narcissism that undermines the possibility of serious social
and political action, and ultimately proves self-destructive. As he explains: "The search for pure
subjective expressive fulfilment may make life thin and insubstantial, may ultimately undercut
itself' (Taylor 1989:511).

EXPRESSIVISM AND HOLISTIC SPIRITUALITY
Although Taylor's characterization of the expressivist turn is of great value in shedding light
on changes in the contemporary religious field, our suggestion in what follows is that close
attention to holistic practices reveals the need for modifications of Taylor's account. Above all,
we suggest that Taylor fails to take account of the significance of gender in understanding the
plausibility and appeal of practices constructing the self as authentic, free, benign, geared to,
and deserving of, self-fulfillment. As a result, he fails to note the link between holistic practices
and a range of concerns linked to contemporary femininities, and consequently fails to register
the importance of: (a) the body and emotion; (b) self-worth and well-being; and (c) intimate
relationships in contemporary forms of "expressive" spirituality.
Bodily Emotional Practice

Taylor begins his account of expressivism with a discussion of the philosophy of "nature as
source," and a reflection on the idealist orientation of Romanticism. Contemporary spirituality
begins, instead, with physical embodiment. As we have noted above, a spiritual search will
often begin with a bad back, high blood pressure, or some other form of physically manifest
disease, rather than with a quest for meaning. Like Louise, seekers may begin by consulting with
a homeopath or other CAM practitioner, or by joining, say, a yoga or Tai Chi group. Louise's
homeopath offers massage, in the course of which she may diagnose areas of tension in the body.
Reflexology makes its diagnosis by way of foot massage; Kinesiology by testing the strength of
different muscle groups; Reiki by feeling of flows of energy around the body; and so on (McGuire
1988, 1997).
The principle upon which these activities are based is that it is the body that provides privileged
access to the inner life of the emotions and the spirit. As Bella, a client of an Alexander Technique
practitioner explains: "I could lie there and say 'I'm fine there's no problems, everything's going
really well' but my body would tell another story." Or as the client of Jenny, a Shiatsu practitioner,
puts it:
I was getting tummy ache, diarrhea and constipation ... Jenny would focus particularly on that part. I'd get a
gurgling tummy as she worked. Loosening inside. Sometimes I'd get upset and the feelings would come out. It
relaxed me too. You can hang on tight. I wanted to work on the body to release these emotions.
In this way the body is seen to quickly and "naturally" give access to the depths of authentic
inner life, which is framed in terms of its emotional texture. Since the body is understood as the
access point to unique selfhood, it serves not only as a symptom of disease, but also as a means
of achieving greater well-being.
However, the significance of the body is beyond diagnosis and treatment. Even the less
obviously and less intensively healing-focused activities, such as yoga or aromatherapy, encourage
participants to get in touch with, explore, and enjoy their physicality. They recognize and validate
bodily existence, give time, space, attention, and financial outlay to the body, and thereby make the
embodied self count. As Bella, a client of an Alexander Technique practitioner explains: "Caring
for myself, I find difficult ... and I do have the time. It just doesn't occur to me ... I keep on
allowing myself to have that experience, that treatment." Informants speak of how contemporary
holistic spiritualities and health practices serve to bring a valued self into being by way of body
work. The body offers a means of working on a wide range of emotional issues emerging from the
authentic and inherently benign inner core of the person. As such, subjective life is the focus of
holistic spiritualities in just the way that Taylor's account would lead us to expect. As a provider
says: the goal of holistic practices is "to find your own truth" by "feeling what's right for you."
However, this subjective life is understood as connected to the body and bodily experience in a
way that Taylor's account does not anticipate.
Self-Worth and Holistic Well-Being

As this discussion of physicality begins to highlight, whereas for Taylor artistic creation is the
paradigm of expressivism, holistic spirituality is orientated around a rather different goal. Here it is

the "mind, body, and spirit" that become the medium of expression and the achievement of health,
wholeness and self-worth that becomes the goal. These linked aspirations are captured in one of the
most privileged terms in contemporary holistic spirituality: "well-being." In conceptualizations

of well-being, the interconnectedness of the body with emotions is central (Sointu 2006b). Many
providers and group leaders-whose focus is the body-report that much of their work is about
"dealing with self-esteem," and the Shiatsu client quoted above says of the effect of his holistic
involvement: "Now it feels like I'm finding [myself] and I'm alright as a person... [it's] to do
with self-worth really."
Given that holistic spiritualities resource projects of selfhood oriented around self-awareness,
self-acceptance, and self-creation, they emphasize freedom and self-determination in the way
Taylor's account would lead us to expect. "You should trust your own life experience and that
you have to find your own truth," says a leader of a Tai Chi group. When this happens, freedom
is believed to result: "I feel like I can be more open and more free, you know, physically and
then mentally," explains a client of a yoga practitioner. Similar emphases were also found in
what providers said about their self-understanding. "We don't want to be something we impose
on someone else," comments a Shiatsu practitioner. "People regard me as the teacher because
I'm running the group," says a meditation teacher, "but as far as I'm concerned if anyone has
anything interesting to say I'll learn from that; it's a constant learning process from both sides."
Similarly for an Alexander Technique practitioner: "rather than giving, you know, a solution,
you're helping [clients] learn a tool which will enable them to discover things for themselves."
Although congruent with Taylor's account of the logic of expressivism, here we find "wholeness"
emerging as the goal, sign, cause, and effect of unique selfhood. "Health," a client of a homeopath
explained to us, means that: "I've got all of myself to bring to anything that I do. Whereas if you're
not healthy, it's like you're just bringing a part of yourself... health is being fully me." In other
words, wholeness is understood as the full realization of uniqueness. As a healer/reflexologist
puts it:
How would I define health? ... A person that is living their life to the full in whatever capacity the body is in. So
even if they're in a wheelchair, even if they're not in our terms healthy, if they feel they are fulfilled with their life,
that they can actually live ... It's the soul feeling it's accomplishing whatever it came to life to do.
As this quotation illustrates, talk of wholeness slides naturally into talk of a "soul" and the
spiritual depths of selfhood. Such talk is part and parcel of the idea that there is a "core" selfhood
with which I must get in touch and to which I must listen. "The more you get in touch with your
core nature," says a Tai Chi practitioner, "the more peace and love you have."
By such means, holistic spiritualities strive to achieve the goal of well-being for those who
participate. Such well-being involves wellness of body, mind, and spirit and a sense of subjectively
assessed and interpreted "balance" and "harmony" among them. It is dependent upon leaving
behind external constraints in order to discover the inner me, and to living out of its fullness. It
is known in and by the "core self'-by way of honest self-acceptance-and has a great deal to
do with a sense of unique self-worth. But well-being is, above all, a feeling of physical, mental,
and emotional well-being that has everything to do with the "self-fulfillment" about which Taylor
speaks in critical tones as a falling away from the expressive ideal. As a rebirthing practitioner
puts it:
It's very much based in the body, it's not going off somewhere. So although there's the spiritual element, it's not
going off into the clouds. It is a wonderful sense people get, they're filling their bodies.
Because using luxurious natural bath oil, having a pedicure, or washing one's hair with an
expensive organic shampoo can all engender this sense of well-being-the sense that "I'm worth
it"-such activities can all fall under the purview of holistic well-being culture. As a plethora
of critics besides Taylor notice, they can be readily colonized by capitalism, and are routinely
characterized as shallowly consumerist (e.g., Bruce 2002; Carrette and King 2004). Nevertheless,
the discourse of holistic well-being contains the awareness of the possibility of "going deeper"
by moving from treatments for the body to those that go further into one's "soul," albeit by way
of the access provided by the body.
Intimate Relationships
As its name implies, holistic spirituality is no stranger to the language of "soul" and "spirit,"
but tends to use the terms rather differently than Taylor's account might lead one to believe.
"Holism" assumes not only that there is a spiritual dimension to life, but also that this spiritual
dimension connects the individual to others. Spirit is often conceived as "chi" or "energy" that
animates every living thing. As one informant said: "energy zinging round your body, that's
spiritual ... the energy's what we call the source ... the chi is the thing." Because it is viewed
as animating the self but as larger than the self, such energy has the potential to take the self
out of itself. "What we are aiming at," explains a Chi Kung and meditation practitioner, "is both
individual and transpersonal."

Unlike Romantic expressivism, however, such spirituality is more accurately described as
relational than monistic, pantheistic, or idealist. And the "whole" to which the individual belongs
is not the spirit of "nature" so much as the web of personal relationships that make up everyday
life. The horizons are often intimate and quotidian, rather than universal and timeless. Compared
with some earlier forms of spirituality (e.g., Theosophy, forms of neo-Vedanta), there seems little
or no desire to merge the self into some greater whole, or to dissolve individuality into one
ness. Rather, there is an attempt to reconcile individuality with relationships in a way that can
do justice to both. Generally speaking, the desire is not to break out of enclosed selfhood into a
wider world of meaning but, on the contrary, to build up a stronger sense of selfhood in a context
in which relationships constantly threaten to swallow up the authentic "me." Thus, several of
our informants spoke of dealing with the problem of having lost a sense of self in the context
of families in which the needs of husband, children, and dependent relatives took priority over
personal self-realization. As one informant put it:
[I had to learn] to know myself. That was important because I wasn't a full person. I couldn't separate from other
people and felt like everyone else was leaning on me and pushing me down. I tried to solve everyone's problems.
Others spoke of being "lost" in a relationship with a dominant, sometimes abusive, partner:
"I still have my life journey around relationships with men"; "I sacrificed myself and sacrificed
my truth for the sake of relationships."
Thus, the goal of holistic spirituality was represented by many of our informants in terms
of the desire to secure a sense of authentic selfhood in the midst of intimate relationships, rather
than to abandon relationships altogether. On the whole, we found those involved in spirituality
to be committed to a vision of authentic selfhood-in-relation, rather than to either autonomous
individualistic selfhood on the one hand, or to the loss of individuality in experiences of sublime
self-transcendence on the other. Such relationality was conceived as fundamentally small scale
and egalitarian. The emphasis was domestic rather than civic. This is not the selfhood of Sennett's
"public man" (1977), but of life lived out in "healthy" connection with intimates, co-workers,
family members, and other proximates-those one comes across in the course of everyday life.
Life is made "whole" when the self relates without being swamped. The practices of contemporary
spirituality instantiate such autonomous relationality, neither leaving it to the individual to "do
their own thing," nor requiring that they subordinate their desires to the will of some wider
collectivity. Thus, projects of selfhiood and self-worth are carried out in the context of one-to-one
consultations or small groups that lay particular emphasis on the authenticity and empowerment
of all involved.
LEGITIMATIONS AND SUBVERSIONS OF TRADITIONAL FEMININITY
Without wishing to deny the significant overlap between Taylor's account of expressivism
and the tendencies evident in holistic spirituality, we have pointed out areas in which Taylor's
account fails to capture features that emerged as significant in the studies that inform this article. To
account for these findings, it is helpful to contextualize them in relation to the gendered identities
of those involved. Doing so can help explain why holistic spirituality has grown so rapidly in
the last few decades, and why it has proved particularly attractive to women. Our suggestion is
that the popularity of holistic spiritualities can be understood, in part, in terms of their ability
both to legitimate and subvert traditional practices and discourses of femininity. As such, holistic
spirituality offers women a means of negotiating contemporary dilemmas of selfhood, including
the contradiction between "living for others" and forging "a life of one's own."
Legitimation
We can single out two main ways in which holistic practices legitimate traditional discourses
and representations of femininity. 6
First, holistic spiritualities validate women's traditional work of relational care, including
care for infants, children, husbands, relatives, the sick, and elderly dependents. As such, holistic
spiritualities legitimate the work of emotional care that has traditionally been central to feminine
forms of identity and labor. Molly, a member of a spiritual healing group expresses this in the
following terms: "I think some women are very career minded, but for the woman who is the
primary carer of a child, that caring is kind of inside them." As a woman and a mother, for Molly
engagement in spiritual healing is a means to enhance the everyday connections that she has with
those around her. Being involved in healing has enabled Molly to "recognise in myself an awful
lot of negative behaviour and an awful lot of negative thoughts. And you suddenly think crikey,
why am I like this, this is really, really anti-social."
As holistic spiritualities tap into, reproduce, and celebrate forms of femininity centered on
everyday relationality and caring, they legitimate an affective selfhood centered on reciprocal
disclosure of feelings. This can be seen even at the health and beauty end of the holistic spectrum,
where a good part of the time shared between provider and client, or group facilitator and group
member, will be given over not only to the actual beauty therapy but to discussion of matters
of affective concern. As Gimlin's (2002) research shows, the so-called chit-chat that takes place
while having a haircut, pedicure, manicure, etc. often touches on deeply felt issues, many of
which relate to intimate relationships, with the therapist acting as confidant or consultant. This
particular form of "emotion work" (Hochschild 2003) becomes even more central in holistic
spiritualities where the skillfully guided exploration of feelings lies at the very heart of things.
Although such emotion work falls within the remit of women's traditional work of care, such work
has historically tended to revolve around the emotional needs of others rather than self. However,
within the holistic milieu this traditional feminine skill of care for other is given economic and
personal validation, as female clients purchase the services of female carers to help them get in
touch with, heal, and validate their own emotional lives. As Louise says of consultations with her
homeopath: "I get soothed and nourished and healed." As a Shiatsu client put it: "It is to do with
contact-they stay and talk, whereas with acupuncture they put needles in and bugger off. It has
the relationship thing, so you can talk about what you want."
Holistic spirituality is relational in its very structure: it involves women and men visiting (or
joining with) men and women who promise to "help them help themselves." Its characteristic
social exchanges involve a high level of emotional self-disclosure. The True Vision group had
an "applause chair" in which a participant sits after sharing emotionally difficult issues with the
group. As a client says of her Alexander Technique practitioner: "she can work with the tensions
which she finds in my body, and just work at that level, but it's much more helpful if she knows
what's going on for me emotionally." Interestingly, the lives of most of the women engaged in the
holistic milieu whom we interviewed and observed are shaped not by the competitive demands of
employment in the higher reaches of commerce and industry, but also by training in humanities
disciplines and work in caring professions and vocations, both paid and unpaid (Heelas and
Woodhead 2005; Houtman and Aupers 2008). As clients, providers, and group members, they are
guided in the construction of modes of self-aware, self-reliant, and self-controlled selfhood, which
allow the reconstruction of intimate and domestic relationships on a basis of greater equality, with
less danger of losing the self in relationships. As one interviewee comments: "The person you
are, is terribly important. And I think it goes back to that, wanting to associate with people who
are nice, who are trustworthy, who are kind, altruistic and all the rest of it." At the same time, you
have to learn to "hold your own power in the relationship," comments one practitioner, while a
group member spoke to us of how spiritual practices had helped her learn to "create relationships
that reflect where I am."

Second, as we have seen, holistic spiritualities are bound up with women's traditional work
of bodily care-whether for the bodies of infants, intimates, the sick, or the elderly. Equally,
they are bound up with care for bodily appearance and "beauty." Holistic spiritualities recognize
and affirm the body, its health, appearance, and sensations, as proper subjects of attention, care,
and cultivation. Using the services of a holistic practitioner means "taking myself and my body
seriously." The principle of caring for the embodied self is expressed by Kate, a client of a Shiatsu
practitioner: "right now working physically is really important to me, being very in touch with
my body and what's happening and how that's connected with my mental state and my feelings."
Holistic health practices and spiritualities also have particular expertise with regard to the female
body. Sue, who visits a bodywork practitioner, comments "I enjoy that intimacy I suppose. It's
that kind of bodily thing that women can have together. Just that ease about your body and your
rolls of fat and, you know." Many holistic health practices flow naturally into-and out of-the
beauty industry. In doing so they legitimate a traditional sphere of femininity, indeed a social
sphere inhabited almost exclusively by women, both as practitioners and clients.
The connection between holistic practices, the beauty industry, and femininity relates in
particular to women's role in society as objects "to be looked at and acted upon" (Young 1990:150,
emphasis original). Historically, even though this may be changing, femininity has been strongly
linked with the significance of caring for the appearance of the body. This does not mean that
men have not or do not engage in practices that focus on the body. Clearly, men do. However,
"self-scrutiny" and "self-policing" remain important discourses relating specifically to feminine
subjectivities (Stacey 1997). Self-surveillance and self-policing are not, of course, essentially
female, but emerge in the context of the ongoing objectification of female bodies (Bordo 1993;
Weiss 1999; Wolf 1991).

Whereas "private" patriarchy turns women into unpaid wives, mothers, and domestics, and
"public" patriarchy turns women into sexed bodies available for male pleasure and symbolic
capital (Dworkin 1983; Walby 1990; Bourdieu 2001), holistic spiritualities and health practices
are more likely to be concerned with the cultivation of bodily well-being for the benefit of the
woman herself, and through this personal well-being, for the benefit of her relations with those
around her. As we move deeper into spiritual forms of well-being culture, the body is treated as the
site of individual presence and interface with the world, and as the starting point for exploration
of an individual's relationship with her own subjectivity and sacred presence. The emphasis on
external beauty tends to diminish as the emphasis on what is sometimes referred to as "inner
beauty" increases.
Subversion
As well as legitimating and celebrating more traditional feminine discourses and practices
that emphasize relationality as well as embodiment, the holistic spiritualities and health practices
have a subversive potential. Although they affirm a relational mode of selfhood, these practices
also insist that an individual's first responsibility is to her- or himself. The consistent message
is that you have to attend to, understand, and care for self first, and that this is the only proper
basis for responsible care for others. Thus, the True Vision group affirmed a line of progress,
which led from "dependence" to "independence" to "interdependence." In another holistic group,
a woman participant spoke of her struggle to think of herself instead of taking on responsibility
for others' lives. She joked about the fact that she had brought biscuits (cookies) for the group as
symptomatic of her "problem," and told the group that she had "grown in the last week by refusing
to take too much responsibility for other people." A few informants spoke of how their spiritual
practice had led to their leaving difficult relationships with men. As one put it: "It improved my
self-esteem and helped me end the maffiage ... My husband was a controlling man who I had
given my power away to." Even if the ultimate result may be the reproduction of "masculinist
fantasies of authorship and control" (Stacey 1997:200), the construction of more autonomous
modes of selfhood is nevertheless subversive in the context of many traditional modes and labors
of femininity. Indeed, what holistic spiritualities offer many women is transcendence, "a sense
of openness to future projects and an existence for-itself' (Weiss 1999:44). Such transcendence
has traditionally been attributed to masculinity, and it acquires its significance and appeal for
women in the context of immanence, "a sense of rootedness to the past stemming from one's
objectification as a being-for-others" (Weiss 1999:44), which has historically marked women's
subjectivities.
As we have noted at several points, holistic spiritualities insist that the care that one should
show oneself entails a well-being that involves deep sensual pleasure and fulfillment. The effect
is to give women access to forbidden discourses of self-fulfillment. As Kate, a Shiatsu client says:
"I want my work to be fulfilling. Not only in a kind of mental stimulating way, or, yeah, I want
to feel nourished by the work that I'm doing, and other things I do in my life." As a person at a
training on "energy management" put it: "The most common area in which we allow damage to
our energy field is when we are too invested in wanting to 'help'." Exercises were offered that
helped participants to identify and act on their own needs, and to "zip" themselves up so as not to be
exposed to the negative energy of others. While acceptable for most masculine modes of selfhood,
this emphasis on legitimate personal fulfillment is subversive of traditional feminine identities
framed around self-sacrificial care, and potentially disruptive of the "double shift" that is worked
by women with children and careers (Hochschild 1989). It is equally subversive of the sexual
double standard that identifies female emotional and sexual fulfillment with the fulfillment of
masculine desire and renders female "appetites" invisible and forbidden (Knapp 2004). Allowing
women to "own" the fact that they feel desire for physical and emotional fulfillment, that such
fulfillment is legitimate, and that they can actively seek it without feeling guilt is deeply subversive
of many of the significant messages that are still transmitted by culture and society-not least by
continuing Christian influence.
At the social and political-as well as personal-level, holistic spiritualities also perform
subversive work simply by affirming the equal worth of each and every unique individual. This
egalitarian potential, which Taylor notes is characteristic of expressivism, can nevertheless be

negated by Romantic forms of expressivism that exalt the unique creative capacity of individual
genius-and that, as such, are perhaps more likely to foster "narcissism," in the clinical sense, as
described by Homey (1937) and Vaknin (1999). By contrast, holistic spiritualities insist that the
worth of each individual lies in the unique "core" or "soul" that each and every single person is
seen to possess. Even if individuals struggle to attend to it and bring it to expression-the task
with which holistic spiritualities assist-it is still present as the "source" of significance. Since
it is conceptualized as present in equal measure in every life, it can serve as the metaphysical
underpinning of a morality of equal regard, respect, and recognition, which potentially stretches
to all life, not just human life. As a holistic healer and Interfaith Network member who was also
very active in "green" activities put it:

I feel very connected with nature ... to me I suppose I would think of God as being not a "being out there" but a
part of me, a part of the earth, a part of everyone, we're all part of the creation ... God is part of us ... I'd perhaps
see it as an energy .., a great force for good in the world, you know, I might pray to that force for help or for
healing for others ... I would do that.
Dilemmas of Modern Selflood

Recognition of the ways in which holistic spirituality both legitimates and subverts traditional
discourses of femininity impels us to consider the broader context of social change, particularly of
gender relations, within which the growth of interest in holistic spirituality has occurred. This is a
context in which lifestyles are increasingly individualized and detraditionalized (Beck, Giddens,
and Lash 1994; Heelas, Lash, and Morris 1996). This does not mean that individuals are released
from social regulation into some free space of essential subjectivity, but that their lives take shape
in a complex web of modem rules, regulations, and guidelines that, more than before, require the
individual to make choices to assert and construct him- or herself. Whereas "one was born into
traditional society and its preconditions (such as social estate and religion), for modem social
advantages one has to do something, to make an active effort. One has to win ... day after day"
(Beck and Beck-Gernsheim 2002:3). Such assertion has no guarantee of success. In the absence of
established roles and regulations the project of successful selfhood becomes both more imperative,
and more precarious. As Taylor puts it: "What has come about with the modem age is not the
need for recognition but the conditions in which the attempt to be recognized can fail" (Taylor
1994:35, 1991:48).
What Taylor fails to note, however, is that the growing individualization, which has taken
place since the 1960s, has different impacts on women and men. Beck and Beck-Gernsheim
(2002) argue that it constitutes a much greater change for women than for men because it involves
an entire change of "framework." By the 19th century in industrial societies, men would routinely
enter the public sphere of paid employment, strive and seek to achieve within it, whereas women
were confined to the domestic sphere where, as wives, mothers, servants, or piece workers, they
would care for others. The shift to a postindustrial context since the 1960s has therefore meant
that women have had to negotiate a whole new mode of selfhood, while men have merely had
to intensify existing modes of masculinity. The impact on women is also complicated by the fact
that for them individualization is qualified or contradicted by continuing ties to traditional roles of
domestic care. Trapped in a "stalled gender revolution" (Hochschild 2003), women-particularly

middle-class women-in contemporary Western societies are forced to negotiate two different
modes of selfhood: the feminized, immanent "self for others" and the masculinized, transcendent
"self for itself." Neither femininity is easily "recognized" in contemporary society, whether by
women or men: the assertive and too-successful woman is the unwomanly and emasculating
"bitch," while the stay-at-home mother lacks drive and ambition and has failed to make the most
of her life.
While this situation clearly confronts contemporary women with distinct difficulties, it also
offers some advantages. In our view, holistic well-being practices, including holistic spirituality,
are best understood within this frame of reference. On the supply side, they make use of women's
traditional labors of bodily and emotional care, but within new social settings in which such
care is recognized and valued-not least by attracting material reward. On the demand side, they
allow women's access to traditional women's care as and when they need it. To avail themselves
of such care is both easy, and challenging. It is easy because women are already familiar with
such care, because women dispense such care, and because it is offered in social locations easily
accessible to women: the beauty parlor, the hairdresser, the fitness club, the private home. It is
challenging because women are more familiar with giving such care than receiving it- hence,
its subversive potential. As one practitioner said, "I did a special deal offering reflexology for ?5
a session. .. Some of them had to think about if for ages to see if they could spend a flyer on
themselves ... they always put themselves at the bottom of the pile." For both reasons, holistic
well-being practices offer women recognition: of the value of their traditional "feminine" skills,
of their right to receive as well as give the benefits of such skills, and of the legitimacy of their
"complaints" (Sointu 2006a). Sue, a client of a homeopath and a bodywork practitioner, explains:
"it felt that like somehow you had to prove something more for doctor whereas the homeopath
was more likely to take what you were saying seriously." And as a client of a healing practitioner
put it: "at last somebody actually understands me." In short, holistic well-being practices make
strategic use of both traditional and individualized modes of selfhood in order to deal with the
tensions that their co-existence generates.
CRITICIZING NARCISSISM
Although the purpose of this article is not to defend holistic spirituality but to achieve a
fuller understanding of it, we have attempted to show that Taylor's account is value laden in
the way in celebrates the masculine subject (the underlying Romantic hero) while criticizing or
trivializing feminized expressions of the subjective turn. Nowhere is this clearer than in his critique
of contemporary spirituality as "narcissistic," lacking in moral horizons, and incapable of laying

down any standards for the moral life besides the statement "it feels good to me." "A society of
self-fulfilment," says Taylor, "cannot sustain the strong identification with the political community
which public freedom needs" (1989:508). Taylor's criticisms are regularly repeated elsewhere.
It has become conventional to situate the growth of therapeutic practices within a late modern
context that shifts the focus of aspiration from social improvement to inner personal satisfaction
(Bellah et al. 1985; Berger, Berger, and Kellner 1974; Campbell 1987). According to Lasch
(1981, 1984) and Sennett (1977), for example, the modern self, characterized by rationality, self
assurance, and self-confidence, is being undermined by irrational emotionality and a futile desire
for intimacy created by various forms of social change. As well as being ultimately self-defeating,
this quest for inner fulfillment is viewed as problematic for the good of wider community. Bellah
et al. (1985) characterize expressive individualism as directly competitive with healthier forms
of social concern and communitarian commitment, and openly criticize Sheila Larson and others
like her who practice holistic spirituality. Others, influenced by Foucault, characterize holistic
spiritualities as concerned with the immediate needs and personal fulfillment of the lost and
alienated individual, and as luring the self into modes of self-policing that ultimately only serve
the worst interests of consumer capitalism (Carrette and King 2004; Furedi 2004).
As we hope to have shown, there is a good deal of truth in the general charge that holistic
spiritualities and health practices are both self-centered and concerned with self-fulfillment of a
distinctly sensuous kind. However, as our discussion also indicates, the emphasis on subjective and
embodied well-being is also bound up with concerns about the value of subjects and experiences
that continue to be marginalized in many religious and medical contexts. A surprising number of
women in our studies spoke of how they felt they had "lost themselves" in relationships and, in
particular, of how their children's leaving home left them lacking a sense of identity. A number of
practitioners also spoke of the high incidence of abuse among their clients. As one put it, "I get a
lot of abuse clients-a larger percentage were abused in some way as children. 'Abused' in their
perception-some physical/sexual abuse, some perceptual." Given the continuing gender-based
inequalities that characterize contemporary Western societies, it means something very different
for those whose femininity continues to be defined in terms of their ability to care for others
before themselves to be encouraged to be self-accepting and self-assertive than it does for those
whose masculinity is defined by society in terms of bodily health and strength, self-assertion,
competitiveness, and economic success (Connell 1995, 2002).

In any case, the emphasis on expressive selfhiood manifest in contemporary holistic spiri
tualities is not as lacking in moral horizons as its critics charge. As we have tried to show, the
injunction to care for the self can have profound moral consequences for individuals located in

social roles that deny the legitimacy of self-fulfillment. As we have also indicated, holistic spiri
tualities are characterized by practical and theoretical commitment to a moral horizon of respect
and care for all the forms of life that the self encounters. As an aromatherapy client put it when
asked it she believed she had a soul: "No, not as a thing. But a soul in terms of feelings and inner
sense of self-worth, and that you shouldn't damage other peoples'-part of respect, caring and
consideration." Holistic practices involve an egalitarian starting point insofar as they recognize
the uniqueness-and unique worth-of each and every individual. In practice as well as theory,
holistic spiritualities encourage not merely respect and "tolerance" (Taylor 2002:89), but active
care for others by way of their belief that all life is ultimately connected and, ideally, in harmony.
True, when compared with the revolutionary political ideals of Romanticism, the aspiration of
care for the well-being of those with whom one comes into contact may seem like a shrunken
moral perspective appropriate to a chastened ideal of what is possible for the individual "hero,"
but this is still qualitatively different from the "narcissistic pampering" of critical imagination.
Given that the object of the narcissistic critique turns out to be less immoral in practice
than in theory, we are left with the interesting question of why holistic spiritualities and health
practices attract such sustained criticism. One possible reason is that the moral horizons with which
holistic practices operate fall under the radar of most moral philosophy and social commentary,
not least because they fail to operate with abstract universals such as "humanity," "community,"
"civil society," or even "the family," but concern themselves instead with embodied and organic
forms of care for the concrete individuals with whom one comes into contact in the course of
everyday life: in other words, a feminized and thus devalued form of caring and sharing. A more
important reason may have to do with understandable anxiety about the future of care in late
modern societies. The caring work that is essential to the survival of any society has always been
performed predominantly by women, and has attracted little reward in terms of status, economic
remuneration, or social recognition. As we have attempted to show, holistic spiritualities represent
a significant challenge to this situation, and may, as such, serve at least at an unconscious level
as a symbol of women's rebellion against their "essential" roles of care. The mental image of a
"pampered" woman lying in a scented bath thinking about her own well-being rather than that of
her dependents is genuinely subversive of traditional gender roles and social order. Rather than
attacking a symptom, however, it is surely more fruitful to consider the underlying issue of who
bears the cost of care in our society, and whether this cost is fairly distributed.
CONCLUSION
Perhaps more than any other theoretical framework, Taylor's account of the expressive mode
of modern selfhood has the ability to illuminate a wide range of contemporary spiritual and
quasi-spiritual practices. Its application is limited, however, by its failure to acknowledge that
the meaning and significance of such selfhood varies in different contexts of embodied and
gendered subjectivity. Most salient in relation to the recent growth of holistic spirituality are its
connections to contemporary dilemmas of femininity. As well as legitimating the relational modes
of selfhood that have traditionally been central to feminine forms of identity and labor, holistic
spiritualities insist on the uniqueness and value of each individual, and on the right to articulate
an inner "core" of selfhood and seek embodied self-fulfillment. They draw on the immanence
traditionally inscribed in women's subjectivities at the same time as emphasizing the importance
of transcendence and the possibility of living one's life for oneself. Thus, contemporary forms of
holistic spirituality both legitimate and challenge traditional discourses and practices of femininity.
Their capacity to offer a practical setting for the construction and performance of forms of selfhood
traditionally demarcated from respectable femininity-such as self-fulfillment, bodily pleasure,

inner authenticity, freedom, and self-expression-constitutes an important part of their appeal.
Even when applied to spirituality today, Taylor's criticisms of contemporary forms of expres
sive selfhood seem to be shaped by a lingering attachment to the masculinist hero of Romanticism,
rather than by attentiveness to actual gendered and embodied practices. As a result, one of the
main effects of his portrayal, as of the other proliferating critiques whose first concern is the
withering of moral horizons and social capital, is to demonize predominantly female discourses
of self-fulfillment and the challenge they pose to the gendered division of labor. As we have tried
to show, however, Taylor's work on expressive selfhood can be reframed in such a way that the
romantic hero ceases to be its paradigm, and his place is taken by others, not least the many contem
porary Western, middle-class women caught between transcendence and immanence-between

practices of care and of autonomous selfhood.
References
Astin, J. A. 1998. Why patients use alternative medicine: Results of national study. JAMA 279(19): 1548-53.
Barker, E. 2004. The church without and the God within: Religiosity and/or spirituality? In Religion and patterns of
social transformation, edited by D. M. Jerolimov, S. Zrinscak, and I. Borowik, pp. 23^7. Zagreb: Institute for
Social Research.
Beck, U. and E. Beck-Gernsheim. 2002. Individualization, institutionalized individualism and its social and political
consequences. London: Sage.

Beck, U., A. Giddens, and S. Lash. 1994. Reflexive modernization?Politics, tradition and aesthetics in the modern social
order. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Bellah, R., R. Madsen, W Sullivan, A. Swindler, and S. Tipton. 1985. Habits of the heart: Individualism and commitment
in American life. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Berger, H. A. 1998. A community of witches. Contemporary neo-paganism and witchcraft in the United States. Columbia,
SC: University of S. Carolina Press.

Berger, P., B. Berger, H. Kellner. 1974. The homeless mind. Modernization and consciousness. Harmondsworth, UK:
Penguin.
Besecke, K. 2005. Seeing invisible religion: Religion as a societal conversation about transcendent meaning. Sociological
Theory 23:179-96.
Best, R. ed. 1996. Education, spirituality and the whole child. London: Cassell.
Bordo, S. 1993. Unbearable weight. Feminism, western culture and the body. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University
of California Press.
Bourdieu, P. 2001. Masculine domination. Cambridge: Polity.

Bovbjerg, K. M. 2001. F0lsomhedens Etik: Tilpasning af personligheden I New Age og moderne management [Ethic of
sensitivity: Disciplining the self in new age and modern management]. Hoejbjerg: Hovedland.
Brace, S. 2002. God is dead. Secularization in the West. Oxford: Blackwell.
Campbell, C. 1987. The romantic ethic and the spirit of modern consumerism. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Cant, S. and U. Sharma. 1999. A new medical pluralism? Alternative medicine, doctors, patients and the state. London:
UCL Press.
Carrette, J. and R. King. 2004. Selling spirituality: The silent takeover of religion. London: Routledge.
Connell, R. W. 1995. Masculinities. Berkeley: University of California Press.
-. 2002. Gender. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Dworkin, A. 1983. Right wing women. The politics of domesticated females. London: Women's Press.
Furedi, F. 2004. Therapy culture: Cultivating vulnerability in an uncertain age. London: Routledge.
Gill, R., C. K. Hadaway, and P. L. Marier. 1998. Is religious belief declining in Britain? Journal for the Scientific Study
of Religion 37(3):507-16.
Gimlin, D. L. 2002. Body work. Beauty and self-image in American culture. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Goldstein, M. S. 2002. The emerging socioeconomic and political support for alternative medicine in the United States.
Annals, AAPSS 583:44-63.
-. 2003. The culture of fitness and the growth of CAM. In Complementary and alternative medicine: Challenge and
change, edited by M. Keiner, B. Wellman, B. Pescosolido, and M. Saks, pp. 27-38. London: Routledge.
Heelas, P. 1996. The new age movement. Oxford: Blackwell.
-. 2002. Work ethics, soft capitalism and the "turn to life." In Cultural economy, edited by P. du Gay and M. Pryke,
pp. 78-96. London: Sage.

-. 2006. Nursing spirituality. Spirituality and health international. Published online at www.interscience.
wiley.com.
Heelas, P., S. Lash, and P. Morris. 1996. Detraditionalization: Critical reflections on authority and identity at a time of
uncertainty. Oxford: Blackwell.
Heelas, P. and L. Woodhead. 2005. The spiritual revolution: Why religion is giving way to spirituality. Oxford, UK,
Maiden, MA: Blackwell.
Hochschild, A. R. 1989. The second shift. Working parents and the revolution at home. New York: Viking.
-. 2003. The commercialization of intimate life: Note s from home and work. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University
of California Press.
Hood, R. 2005. Mystical, spiritual, and religious experiences. In Handbook of the psychology of religion and spirituality,
edited by R. F. Paloutzian and C. L. Park, pp. 348-64. London: Guildford.

Horney, K. 1937. The neurotic personality of our time. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Houtman, D. and S. Aupers. 2008. The spiritual revolution and the new age gender puzzle: The sacralisation of the self in
late modernity (1980-2000). In Women and religion in the West: Challenging secularization, edited by G. Vincett,
S. Sharma, and K. Aune. Aldershot: Ashgate. Forthcoming.

Hughes, K. 2004. Health as individual responsibility. Possibilities and personal struggle. In The mainstreaming of com
plementary and alternative medicine, studies in social context, edited by P. Tovey, G. Easthope, and J. Adams, pp.
25-46. London: Routledge.

Keiner, M. 2003. The therapeutic relationship under fire. In Complementary and alternative medicine: Challenge and
change, edited by M. Keiner, B. Wellman, B. Pescosolido, and M. Saks, pp. 79-97. London: Routledge.
Keiner, M. and B. Wellman. 1997. Health care and consumer choice: Medical and alternative therapies. Social Science
and Medicine 45(2):203-12.

Knapp C. 2004. Appetites. New York: Counterpoint Press.
Lasch, C. 1981. Culture of narcissism: American life in an age of diminishing expectations. London: ABACUS.
-. 1984. The minimal self: Psychic survival in trouble times. London: Picador.
Marier, P. L. and Hadaway, K. 2002. "Being religious" or "being spiritual" in America: A zero-sum proposition? Journal
for the Scientific Study of Religion 41(2): 289-300.
Martin, E. 1994. Flexible bodies: Tracking immunity in American culture from the days of polio to the age of AIDS.
Boston: Beacon Press.
Mcgregor, K. J. and E. R. Peay. 1996. The choice of alternative health therapy for health care: Testing some propositions.
Social Science and Medicine 43(9): 1317-27.

McGuire, M. B. 1988. Ritual healing in suburban America. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
-. 1997. Mapping contemporary American spirituality: A sociological perspective. Christian Spirituality Bulletin
5(l):l-8.
Powell, M. and M. Hewitt. 2002. Welfare state and welfare change. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Puttick, E. 2003. New age publishing: Reflecting or creating the trends. Paper delivered to the Alternative Spiritualities
and New Age Studies Conference, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK, May 30-June 1.
Roof, W C. 1999. Spiritual marketplace. Baby boomers and the remaking of American religion. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press.
Rose, N. 1999. Powers of freedom: Reframing political thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ruggie, M. 2004. Marginal to mainstream: Alternative medicine in America. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Salamon, K. 2000. No borders in business: The managerial discourse of organisational holism. In Cultural capitalism,
edited by T. Bewes and J. Gilbert, pp. 134-57. London: Lawrence & Wishart.
-. 2001. Going global from the inside out. Spiritual globalism in the workplace. In New age religion and globalization,
edited by M. Rothstein, pp. 150-72. Aarhus, Denmark: Aarhus University Press.
-. 2002. Prophets of a cultural capitalism. An ethnography of romantic spiritualism in business management. Folk
Journal of the Danish Ethnographic Society 44:89-115.
Salomonsen, J. 2001. Enchanted feminism: Ritual constructions of gender, agency and divinity among the reclaiming
witches of San Francisco. London: Routledge.

Schmidt, L. E. 2005. Restless souls. The making of American spirituality. New York: Harper San Francisco.
Sennett, R. 1977. The fall of public man. Cambridge, London, and Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.
Sharma, U. 1992. Complementary medicine today: Practitioners and patients. London and New York: Tavistock/
Routledge.
Sointu, E. 2005a. In search ofwellbeing: Reflecting on the use of alternative and complementary medicines. Unpublished
Ph.D. thesis, Department of Sociology, Lancaster University, Lancaster, PA.
-. 2005b. The rise of an ideal: Tracing changing discourses of wellbeing. Sociological Review 53(2):255-74.
-. 2006a. Recognition and the creation of wellbeing. Sociology 40(3):493-510.
-. 2006b. The search for wellbeing in alternative and complementary health practices. Sociology of Health and Illness
28(3):330-49.
Stacey, J. 1997. Teratologies: A cultural study of cancer. London: Routledge.

Taylor, C. 1989. Sources of the self. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
-. 1991. The ethics of authenticity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

-. 1994. The politics of recognition. In Multiculturalism, examining the politics of recognition, edited by A. Gutmann,
pp. 25-73. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
-. 2002. Varieties of religion today, William James revisited. Cambridge, MA and London, UK: Harvard University
Press.
-. 2005. Modern social imaginarles. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Thomas, K., J. Nicholl, and P. Coleman. 2001. Use and expenditure on complementary medicine in England: A population
based survey. Complementary Therapies in Medicine 9(1):2?11.

Tipton, S. M. 1982. Getting saved from the sixties. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Vaknin, S.. 1999. Malignant self love: Narcissism revisited. Skopje: Narcissus Publications.
Vincent, C. and A. Furnham. 1996. Why do patients turn to complementary medicine? An empirical study. British Journal
of Clinical Psychology 35:37-48.

-. 1997. Complementary medicine, a research perspective. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons
Walby S. 1990. Theorizing patriarchy. Cambridge, MA and Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
Weiss, G. 1999. Body images: Embodiment as intercorporeality. New York and London: Routledge.
Wiles, J. and M. W Rosenberg. 2001. "Gentle caring experience": Seeking alternative health care in Canada. Health and
Place 7:209-24.
Winnick, T. A. 2005. From quackery to "complementary" medicine: The American medical profession confronts alter
native therapies. Social Problems 52(1):38?61.

Wolf, N. 1991. The beauty myth. How images of beauty are used against women. London: Vintage.
Young, I. M. 1990. Throwing like a girl and other essays in feminist philosophy and social theory. Bloomington and
Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
Zinnbauer, B., K. Pargament, B. Cole, M. Rye, E. Butter, T. Belavich, K. Hipp, A. Scott, and J. Kadar. 1997. Religion
and spirituality: Unfuzzying the fuzzy. Journal for the Social Scientific Study of Religion 36(4):549-64.

Spirituality Gender Selfhood Woodhead 08

Загружено:

Сведения о документе

Авторское право

Доступные форматы

Поделиться этим документом

Поделиться или встроить документ

Параметры публикации

Этот документ был вам полезен?

Это неприемлемый материал?

Авторское право:

Доступные форматы

Spirituality Gender Selfhood Woodhead 08

Загружено:

Авторское право:

Доступные форматы

Spirituality, Gender, and Expressive Selfhood

Author(s): Eeva Sointu and Linda Woodhead

Spirituality, Gender, and Expressive Selfhood

and some men-in late modern contexts.

Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (2008) 47(2):259-276

260 JOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION

Heelas 2002; Salamon 2000, 2001, 2002).

we are addressing is why holistic self-spiritualities appeal to so many women. By studying

changes in religious and spiritual practice related to contemporary negotiations of selfhood. We

expressions needs to be developed further in order to do justice to some of the contemporary

SPIRITUALITY, GENDER, AND EXPRESSIVE SELFHOOD 261

standpoint of Taylorian accounts that privilege an implicitly male model of Romanticism as an

BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY

262 JOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION

Rather, she turned to a practitioner at a time of self-assessed emotional need.

SPIRITUALITY, GENDER, AND EXPRESSIVE SELFHOOD 263

"RESPONSE-ABILITY." Accordingly, questions of empowerment, agency, and control are often

264 JOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION

(male) Romantic genius.

truth-desires and accepts (Taylor 1991:29).

itself' (Taylor 1989:511).

SPIRITUALITY, GENDER, AND EXPRESSIVE SELFHOOD 265

Bodily Emotional Practice

Self-Worth and Holistic Well-Being

266 JOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION

most privileged terms in contemporary holistic spirituality: "well-being." In conceptualizations

words, wholeness is understood as the full realization of uniqueness. As a healer/reflexologist

SPIRITUALITY, GENDER, AND EXPRESSIVE SELFHOOD 267

of the access provided by the body.

individual and transpersonal."

268 JOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION

LEGITIMATIONS AND SUBVERSIONS OF TRADITIONAL FEMININITY

and representations of femininity. 6

SPIRITUALITY, GENDER, AND EXPRESSIVE SELFHOOD 269

that reflect where I am."

Weiss 1999; Wolf 1991).

270 JOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION

continuing Christian influence.

egalitarian potential, which Taylor notes is characteristic of expressivism, can nevertheless be

SPIRITUALITY, GENDER, AND EXPRESSIVE SELFHOOD 271

healing for others ... I would do that.

Dilemmas of Modern Selflood

domestic care. Trapped in a "stalled gender revolution" (Hochschild 2003), women-particularly

272 JOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION

of contemporary spirituality as "narcissistic," lacking in moral horizons, and incapable of laying

competitiveness, and economic success (Connell 1995, 2002).

SPIRITUALITY, GENDER, AND EXPRESSIVE SELFHOOD 273

traditionally demarcated from respectable femininity-such as self-fulfillment, bodily pleasure,

274 JOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION

porary Western, middle-class women caught between transcendence and immanence-between

consequences. London: Sage.

order. Cambridge: Polity Press.

SC: University of S. Carolina Press.

Bourdieu, P. 2001. Masculine domination. Cambridge: Polity.

Connell, R. W. 1995. Masculinities. Berkeley: University of California Press.

-. 2002. Gender. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Annals, AAPSS 583:44-63.

pp. 78-96. London: Sage.

Maiden, MA: Blackwell.

SPIRITUALITY, GENDER, AND EXPRESSIVE SELFHOOD 275

edited by R. F. Paloutzian and C. L. Park, pp. 348-64. London: Guildford.

S. Sharma, and K. Aune. Aldershot: Ashgate. Forthcoming.

25-46. London: Routledge.

and Medicine 45(2):203-12.