How to Look Good Naked ‘On the Couch’ Psychoanalytic Approaches to British Makeover Television and Gender’
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DOCTORAL THESIS How To Look Good Naked ‘On the couch’ Psychoanalytic approaches to British makeover television and gender’ Thomadaki, Theodora Award date: 2017 General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 04. Oct. 2021 How To Look Good Naked ‘On the Couch’: Psychoanalytic approaches to British makeover television and gender By Theodora Thomadaki BSc, MA A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PhD Media, Culture and Language Department University of Roehampton 2017 0 ABSTRACT This project formulates an original psycho-cultural approach by studying the cultural and therapeutic value of Gok Wan’s makeover series How To Look Good Naked. Through an in-depth application of Donald Woods Winnicott’s object relations psychoanalysis to the textual narratives of the makeover show, and by developing a viewing method that derives from psychoanalytic training on observation, this thesis offers an account of the affective impact of Gok Wan’s popular makeover phenomenon. This thesis addresses key themes and elements that signal the evolution of British makeover television and identifies how Gok Wan’s format and strategies chime with what has widely been hailed as a particularly ‘therapeutic’ moment in popular culture. The emblematic features of Gok Wan’s rendition of the makeover format highlights its potential positive outcomes by examining the articulation of current embodied feminine subjective experiences, in order to interrogate the complex relationship between postfeminism and therapeutic discourse. This thesis recognises that the therapeutic opportunity of Gok Wan’s method lies in the transformational process by creating emotionally constructive spaces where the articulation of experiences leads to inner self-discovery. Playful mechanisms of creativity are central to Gok Wan’s empathetic approach to working with participants to enable transformation, reflecting a number of key themes in object relations psychoanalysis and its understanding of self-experience. The opportunities afforded to participants for self-interpretation create a useful platform to reflect on Gok Wan’s role, who has been candid about the parallels between his own emotional experience and that of his participants. Psychoanalytic models of 1 transference and countertransference indicate how this dynamic challenges dominant notions of the makeover expert as omnipotent. This project demonstrates the value of object relations psychoanalysis for critical interventions in the field of media, cultural and feminist studies in order to provide a deeper understanding of the affective impact of makeover television in shaping notions of subjective experience. 2 CONTENTS PAGE ABSTRACT 1-2 CONTENTS PAGE 3-6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 7-12 INTRODUCTION 13-33 Getting Naked with Gok Wan 17 Aims and Objectives 23 How To Look Good Naked, Psychoanalysis and the ‘Inner World’ 24 CHAPTER 1 Towards a psycho-cultural approach: Contextualising the How To Look Good Naked makeover format 34-79 The contributors of the makeover format 37 Reality debates: Framing the value of Reality TV 51 The Neoliberal imperatives of Lifestyle Media 55 From Advice Media to Lifestyle TV 60 Oprah’s Couch: A therapeutically inclined show 68 3 CHAPTER INTERLUDE Notes on the methodology 80-92 Notes towards a viewing method: Research practices and decisions 84 How To Look Good Naked: Episode selection and textual analysis 88 CHAPTER 2 The role of the ‘couch’ in Makeover TV 93-148 Critiques of therapy culture 98 The use of the couch in the Makeover format 103 Changing Rooms: Dreams on the couch 104 In ‘private consultation’ with What Not to Wear 112 The use of mirrors in How To Look Good Naked 115 Gok Wan’s ‘feel good’ therapy 132 CHAPTER 3 Framing the How To Look Good Naked’s postfeminist opportunity 149-201 The ‘good’, the ‘bad’ and the ‘post-natal’ body 171 The body and its ‘split’ media images 173 A Naked case of ‘splitting’ 182 The maternal body as emotionally uncomplicated 185 Maternal Ambivalences: A Naked postfeminist opportunity 194 4 CHAPTER 4 A psycho-cultural reading of How To Look Good Naked 202-275 Winnicott’s object sequence: The creative capacity to object-use 206 Reading How To Look Good Naked through object relations 215 How To Look Good Naked: The case of Leanne 216 The tights are ... my comfort zone 237 How To Look Good Naked: The case of Nikki 251 Gok Wan: A Transformational Agent 268 CHAPTER 5 I was reliving the pain I’d tried so hard to forget: Gok Wan’s Naked reveal 276-330 Gok Wan’s soothing voice 282 Gok Wan’s comforting touch 296 Gok Wan’s capacity for empathy 310 Gok Wan: The naked man in the mirror 318 CHAPTER 6 10 Years On: The cultural significance of the Gok Wan Phenomenon 331-397 Gok Wan’s media expansion 334 ‘Feeling Good from Within’ with Gok Wan 343 5 Activia’s re-staging of the How To Look Good Naked setting 348 Activia’s condensation of Gok Wan’s ‘therapeutic’ practice 360 Gok Wan’s development as a culturally internalised object 373 Activia’s mirrors: The How To Look Good Naked Labyrinth 377 CONCLUSION 398-410 BIBLIOGRAPHY 411-438 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I hardly consider this PhD thesis a personal accomplishment. The completion of this project was only possible due to the immense support of my family, supervisors and friends. First and foremost, I would like to thank my father Mr Angelo and my mother Mrs Evangelia Thomadakis for their love, trust, emotional and financial support throughout the development of this thesis but most importantly for their faith that I am worthy and gifted to complete such an undertaking. I personally wish to express my deepest gratitude to my father who has been my rock. You have always freed me of any worries allowing me to focus solely on my work whilst continually showing your respect and admiration towards my thesis. I thank you for the beautiful symbolic parables you have always narrated to me in moments of utter despair and self-doubt in an effort to keep my spirit up. Thank you for the conversations and debates that contributed towards the strengthening of my voice. You have taught me to continually strive to make my dreams come true and to view each struggle as a beautiful memory that will remind me of how far I have come and what I have achieved. Thank you for being there and for being who you are. My respects to you Sir. To the female role model of my life, my mother. Your patience, understanding and motherly support has been for me that warm and soothing blanket that comforted me throughout these emotionally and intellectually challenging experiences. You have endlessly expressed your love and support towards my work. For every tear I have shed throughout the development of this project you enabled me to feel 7 understood and constantly reminded me of how worthy I am. In moments of emotional struggle with my work you kept telling me that ‘we can do it’ and that we are in this together, thus making this journey less isolated and more like a shared female experience. Thank you for giving me the space to read you pages of my work for long hours which helped me to make sense of these complex arguments that I was striving so hard to achieve. My scholarly work always strives to underpin the value of the female voice and significance of female shared experiences and you are largely responsible for shaping my academic views because it is you who taught me of the beauty and strength of female cohesion. Thank you for being such a noble and distinguished woman and female figure. My deepest gratitude to you Ma’am. A distinct exemplar of female solidarity is my dearest sister Evangelia Thomadakis, the strongest and most hardworking woman I know. I thank you ever so much not only for your tolerance, support and encouragement throughout this thesis but also for your encouragement to undertake this project. You have witnessed the development of this project from its beginning and you have stood by my side even in the most emotionally draining times that temporarily left me feeling powerless to carry on. Thank you for embracing me with love and tenderness and for constantly assuring me with this confidence of yours to keep going, thus reminding me how you admire my persistence for this thesis. Thank you my beloved sister, you have stood by my side and always got my back. I never gave up on this project because you have never given up on me. I am eternally grateful. 8 I wish to thank the University of Roehampton for giving me the opportunity to take on this journey and for providing me with the finest resources and the necessary facilitating academic environment to develop this project. Most importantly, I wish to thank my Director of Studies Professor Caroline Bainbridge for being the most remarkable supervisor a research student could ever ask for. Thank you for your solid guidance, intellectual and emotional support throughout this journey.