Wellbeing is a quality in demand in today's society. Wellbeing is virtue that is much desired, much promoted, and much debated. Yet, as an ideal, wellbeing is not a concept set in stone. Rather, conceptualisations and experiences of wellbeing are produced in and through wider social perceptions and practices. This article outlines and analyses contemporary conceptualisations of wellbeing and suggests that ideas of wellbeing capture and reproduce important social norms. Indeed, the increasing popularity of the ideal of wellbeing appears to reflect shifts in perceptions and experiences of individual agency and responsibility. In particular, dominant discourses of wellbeing relate to changes in subjectivity; they manifest a move from subjects as citizens to subjects as consumers. In a consumer society, wellbeing emerges as a normative obligation chosen and sought after by individual agents. This article is informed by social theories of subjectivity and critical analyses of selected newspaper reports from 1985 to 2003.

This article discusses contemporary spiritualities, focusing in particular on the recent growth of practices 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 of femininity, while simultaneously supporting and encouraging a move away from 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 selfhood that face many womenand some men-in late modern contexts.

This article is premised on a need to understand and analyse how those turning to alternative and complementary medicines conceptualise the role of these practices; to ask what kind of 'health' is produced through alternative and complementary medicines and how might the help provided by these practices relate to questions of identity, self and subjectivity? Even though alternative and complementary medicines can be utilised in the face of serious illness, the healing produced through these practices is here argued to transcend physiological health and relate rather to a subjectively assessed sense of 'wellbeing'. In this article, I analyse what this wellbeing entails, in particular, in terms of contemporary understandings of selfhood as well as in relation to the production of appropriate emotions through 'emotion management'. I argue that the wellbeing produced through alternative and complementary health practices can be conceptualised as a means of asserting a particular kind of self as well as a means of negotiating identities offered to people in wider societal discourses and institutions. This article is based on qualitative interviews with both practitioners and users of varied alternative and complementary medicines. The focus is on women's experiences.Keywords: alternative and complementary medicines, emotion work , the self, wellbeing IntroductionThe number of people engaging in different therapeutic practices has been rising rapidly during the past decades. Contemporary Western societies now host a plenitude of varying kinds of therapists and counsellors. Simultaneously, a more therapeutic rhetoric has come to encompass social institutionsWellbeing and alternative and complementary health practices 331

Whilst much research into alternative and complementary medicine use indicates that these practices enable experiences of control, agency and empowerment, few theoretically informed answers have been given to why and how consultations with alternative and complementary health practitioners facilitate experiences that are felt to be 'healing'.This article utilizes theories of recognition in order to reflect on the healing experiences of women seeking health and wellbeing through varied forms of alternative and complementary medicine. I analyse the empowering and agency-giving aspects of alternative and complementary medicines, in particular in relation to wider societal conceptualizations of the self. This article is based on qualitative interviews with both practitioners and clients of varying alternative and complementary medicines. KEY WORDSalternative medicines / empowerment / identity / recognition / subjectivity

This article is premised on the importance of locating the appeal and meaning of alternative and complementary medicines in the context of gendered identities. I argue that the discourse of wellbeing -captured in many alternative and complementary health practices -is congruent with culturally prevalent ideals of self-fulfilling, authentic, unique and self-responsible subjectivity. The discourse of wellbeing places the self at the centre, thus providing a contrast with traditional ideas of other-directed and caring femininity. As such, involvement in alternative and complementary medicines is entwined with a negotiation of shifting femininities in detraditionalising societies. Simultaneously, many alternative and complementary health practices readily tap into and reproduce traditional representations of caring femininity. It is through an emphasis on emotional honesty and intimacy that the discourse of wellbeing also captures a challenge to traditional ideas of masculinity. Expectations and experiences relating to gender add a further level of complexity to the meaningfulness and therapeutic value of alternative and complementary medicines and underlie the gender difference in the utilisation of holistic health practices. I draw on data from a qualitative study with 44, primarily white, middle-class users and practitioners of varied alternative and complementary medicines in the UK.