[shrinkermd]

Professor Furedi alludes to more than one cultural trend that has encouraged the culture of therapy. First, there has been a loss of belief in the authority of inherited standards, codes, morals and so forth:

Parenthetically, Freud believed the superego (conscience) also served an economic function. If one believes stealing is wrong and immoral then one does not have to spend extraordinary amounts of time and thought every time one goes into a store.

Theodore Dalrymple has written a masterful book called Life At the Bottom. It is a must read to understand the concept of "underclass" and why it persists.

Finally, all Freepers can rest assured --the government will soon fund counselling for any and all personal problems as a medical reimbursement.

[2banana]

I could have really used some "therapy" on election night in 1992 and 1996. I got over it though...

[stands2reason]

bump

[First Amendment]

Thanks for the note on Dalrymple's book - I'll look for it. Missing from the above review is the increasing dependence on psycho-active drugs to even out the rough bumps, stemming from the theory that the brain is the cause of consciousness, and anything "wrong" in the consciousness is chemically based.

[Loyalist]

Whenever a significant public tragedy occurs today, the grief counsellors swoop down like a flock of vultures.

These ghouls believe that people cannot deal with grief without their expert intervention and hysterical blubbering.

Most sane people prefer to seek the consolation of God, family, and close friends, and handle their grief with dignified reserve.

At best, the professional grief counsellors are useless; at worst, they make grief harder to bear.

[mlmr]

Life at the Bottom is a great book and it is already a reality in US psych hospitals.

[spodefly]

Dalrymple BUMP

[MontanaBeth]

That's what I have dogs for, they always listen and don't charge by the hour. (Love you Gizmo and Scully)!

[x]

But anyone who even so much as thinks about his self-esteem is doomed to a life of self-absorption. Exaggerated individualism leads in the end to a terrible lack of individuality.

Maybe, but the world we live in is characterized by such exaggerated individualism. Can we put the genie back in the bottle or the toothpaste back in the tube and return to a more stable, duty-oriented way of life? Do we want to? And are things really as grim for all as Dalrymple paints them? Perhaps those who languish without the guidance of fixed roles today would have chafed and bristled against the roles that were assigned to them in past eras. It's the same struggle to make something out of one's life -- just conducted in a different setting and against different opponents.

[Timocrat]

Theodore Dalrymple is a practising psychiatrist in London England

Often read his articles in the Spectator. Didn't realise he was a shrink. Some of his tales about his patients in Jail are both hilarious and sad.