A Slovene president’s self-help discourse: making Slovenes more positive

In this article we examine the self-help discourses in Slovene President Drnovsek's blog, which he uses as the main tool to communicate with the Slovene public. On the basis of a critical discourse analysis of Drnovsek's writings, we argue that Drnovsek recontextualises Slovene political discourse and replaces it with a particular type of therapeutic discourse. We explore Drnovsek's self-help discourse as a way of approaching some issues associated with the ‘post-socialist’ condition. We suggest that his discourse attempts to direct citizens towards a ‘proper’ understanding of the social changes caused by the collapse of socialism and the rise of (neo)liberalism. Furthermore, his discourse advises the citizens how to ‘empower’ themselves during insecure economic times.