Práticas terapêutico-religiosas na sociedade midiatizada: o dispositivo do cuidado de si na lei da atração no YouTube

Abstract

This research aims to analyze the discourse that builds the therapeutic-religious practices on the Law of Attraction that are broadcast and taught in 22 selected videos from the Gisela Vallin channel on Youtube. The first chapter of theoretical elaboration aims to understand the object of investigation from a social and historical perspective through three spheres. Authors from different fields such as sociology, sociology of religion and communication offer support so that we can observe the complexity of this phenomenon. In this way, three sections are formulated to account for the conceptual vastness. The first is dedicated to the concepts of risk, ontological security, pluralism, secularization of the State, individualism, placing this research in the development of modernity; the second is intended to observe how these transformations in the social sphere affect subjectivities, giving rise to waves of advice such as self-help literature, coaching and quantum coaching; the third approaches the Law of Attraction and the New Age religious movement to understand the roots of esotericism present in the discourse that describes the technique. The second theoretical chapter, intends to make it possible to understand the constitution of subjects in contemporary times, the interference in collective subjectivities, the power strategies involved, located in the context of mediatization of society through the promotion of interactive and technological devices. For this purpose, the concepts of biopolitics, surveillance and self-care will be used, placing the incidence of neoliberal rationality in the formation of an ethos of a constructed and performed personality, the dictatorship of happiness, production and consumption of a therapeutic culture. From a communicational and mediatic point of view, the Law of Attraction is tensioned from the dialogue between media and society, promoting a debate between platforms of interaction, especially the logic of operation of Youtube, to understand how these spaces provide an environment favorable for the formulation, diffusion and consumption of discursive elaborations on contents that involve “psi” issues closely linked to techno-informational possibilities. Finally, the last chapter refers to the aesthetic and discursive analysis of the videos of the holistic therapist and specialist in the Law of Attraction, Gisela Vallin. The methodology used is Discourse Analysis that takes place through the procedures proposed by Orlandi (2009) and non-verbal analysis by Charaudeau (2001). The analytical apparatus presented, in line with the methodological scheme described in this research, allows to identify which discursive strategies are used by the therapist and youtuber Gisela, such as scientific legitimation, intellect-spiritual distinction between herself and her followers, religious rationality and others. In the same way, it is possible to highlight the effects of meaning that result from these mechanisms, such as the implementation of a performing self, the subjects' self-responsibility, defense of meritocratic values, denial of structural problems and overvaluation of feelings such as happiness.