What sounds like a fascinating new book is just out — “One Nation Under Therapy.” The WSJ review [$] says in part:

“… ‘therapism’ (is the author’s) term for theories and practices whose common theme is the fragility and helplessness of human beings.

…By now, most of us are familiar with the tenets of therapism. Children in schools must be shielded from competitive environments, lest their self-esteem be damaged. Society will become healthier as people learn to share their emotions, no matter how unwelcome these may be to others. The only thing worse than suppressing one’s feelings is passing judgment on someone else’s. Suffering or discontent of any kind is not ennobling but pathological and must be treated.

… Ms. Sommers and Dr. Satel clearly relish taking on the platitudes of pop psychology. They cite studies showing that, in fact, emotional “repressors” fare better than emotional “ruminators”; they scoff at the idea that self-esteem correlates with personal success, let alone ethical conduct; and, citing 9/11 and other disturbing events, they argue that most people recover from even deeply traumatic experiences on their own.”

Their approach sounds right. Hundreds of thousands of years on the savannah adapted humans for short, tragic lives with a time horizon no longer than the food supply. That makes us tough, not fragile. At the individual level ‘therapism’ likely does no harm. But when the belief system is pervasive in the culture, especially in schools, real damage is being done (see here for our take on the downward spiral of the self-esteem movement).

The books sounds terrific. Somebody read it and tell us what you think.

(update: George Will has some commentary on the book today.)

This entry was posted on Friday, April 22nd, 2005 at 12:51 pm by A Senior Administration Official and is filed under Brilliant, but uncategorizable, Politically Correct ... and stupid. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.