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Short abstract:

This paper deals with the social conditions of production of a psychological label from an STS perspective. It shows the ambivalent role of scientific arguments in the (de)legitimization of a controversial label. It questions more broadly the nature of expertise within the “therapeutic culture”.

Long abstract:

This paper aims to show the interest of using an STS perspective for understanding the circulation and the success of psychological labels. More precisely, it examines the case of the Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) label, which was first coined in 1996 by an American psychotherapist, Elaine Aron, in her book The Highly Sensitive Person. How to Thrive when the World Overwhelms You (Aron 1996). This self-help book quickly became an international bestseller (for instance, it is translated in 2005 in French) and more and more people all around the world began to testify to the great awakening and transformation they felt when they discovered their high sensitivity. This social phenomenon can thus refer to what Ian Hacking calls a process of “making up people” (Hacking 1999).

This case study is of great interest from the STS perspective because the label of HSP has the distinctive feature of being a contested and emerging label. It is therefore particularly relevant to examine the various ways in which different actors seek to bring this label into existence and making it credible (Shapin 1995). The scientific argument plays a special role in this context: in particular, the neurobiological basis of high sensitivity functions as the main legitimizing authority for experts (with the argument of the “highly sensitive brain” for instance). The success of this “travelling” label (Prieur et al. 2016) also questions the nature of expertise (Eyal 2013) in the “therapeutic culture”: how and why do professionals use their “high sensitivity” in their work?