Laura, Have you seen Mimi White's new book called Tele-Advising? She deals with the Shopping Network, the 700 Club, a few game shows and some prime time drama. It is a very interesting book, and sets out a framework of confessional/therapeutic discourse which seems to run throughout American Television. Although she does not deal with soaps, she does have some very interesting ideas on how the subject as consumer is addressed (right word here? I'm not sure) through confesional/therapeutic disourse.