“Only You”: Neoliberal responsibilizing through a public health campaign in the Norwegian welfare state

Abstract

One of the pathways through which psychology may function as "politics by other means" is when scientific knowledge from the discipline is used to inform and influence the public on issues of health and well-being. To illustrate this point, we explore "Only You," a Norwegian public health campaign composed of psychoeducational videos and web resources and aimed to promote well-being in the general Norwegian population. By drawing upon critical psychological literature on agency, neoliberal subjectivity, responsibilizing and neurogovernance, we critically analyze promotional and instructional videos that explicitly targeted individual behavioral change. We demonstrate how these campaign videos appropriate psychological knowledge and conceal societal contexts in order to responsibilize subjects and thereby perpetuate neoliberal ideas and practices in the Norwegian welfare state. In this sense, they provide illustrations of how psychology can be a tool for restricting agency under the guise of encouraging autonomy.