Not Every Kid Needs a Shrink

[Geee]

Free Beacon

Is therapy good for you? Many people have benefited from it, and the word itself, from the Greek, therapeia, means "healing."

 

But what happens when the effort to heal extends beyond necessity? Or when a focus on trauma stunts the development of resiliency? Or when families raise children to believe that the normal slings and arrows of childhood are the beginning of lifelong mental health issues? Or when most of the socially formative institutions in the lives of the young regularly force-feed them a message of victimization and weakness?

These are some of the urgent questions Abigail Shrier asks in Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren't Growing Up. "The rising generation has received more therapy than any prior generation. Nearly 40 percent of the rising generation has received treatment from a mental health professional—compared with 26 percent of Gen Xers," she writes.

How did we get here?

Much of this began as an effort to help children, as Shrier notes (her introduction is titled "We Just Wanted Happy Kids"). But the iatrogenic effects of such efforts are now impossible to ignore: The kids are not alright; they are suffering. Young people have experienced an alarming rise in depression, anxiety, and self-harm, and many now believe they cannot handle the challenges of life without constant therapeutic interventions. "How did kids raised so gently come to believe that they had experienced debilitating childhood trauma?" Shrier asks. "How did kids who receive far more psychotherapy than any previous generation plunge into a bottomless well of despair?"

Shrier identifies several recent developments that likely contributed to the steep rise in mental health treatment among the young, including the impact of COVID-era school closures; the near-constant use of smartphones and social media; and the general message of anxiety around climate change. Like many critics before her, she also indicts a culture of parenting that has allowed a therapeutic approach to childrearing to flourish. "We parents have become so frantic, hypervigilant, and borderline obsessive about our kids' mental health that we routinely allow all manner of mental health expert to evict us from the room," she argues.

[Valin]

1 hour ago, Geee said:

Free Beacon

Is therapy good for you? Many people have benefited from it, and the word itself, from the Greek, therapeia, means "healing."

The Triumph of the Therapeutic Mind

Beyond the political posturing over state and federal budgets, there looms an age-old philosophical divide over human nature, perhaps defined as the therapeutic versus the tragic view of our existence.

Victor Davis Hanson

March 9, 2011

[Valin]

I was one of the few kids in my neighborhood that never had a broken bone. How this happened, no clue, I did all the stupid stuff everyone else did.

Duluth drops 800 feet in a mile (ie straight own) We'd get on our bikes push off and see who stopped last. INSANE! That was one of the things we did.

Doing Stupid things is one way to learn not to do stupid things.

 

[SDwaters]

1 hour ago, Valin said:

Doing Stupid things is one way to learn not to do stupid things.

[Geee]

1 hour ago, SDwaters said:

I would say that is the case for people who repeatedly vote for Democrats.!

[Valin]

1 hour ago, Geee said:

I would say that is the case for people who repeatedly vote for Democrats.!

 

[Geee]

22 minutes ago, Valin said:

 

Well, they can't help it. They have a superior intellect and know better than us peons.  The superior intellect disappears however when asked details.

[Valin]

50 minutes ago, Geee said:

Well, they can't help it. They have a superior intellect and know better than us peons.  The superior intellect disappears however when asked details.

I really REALLY wish I could disagree...but alas.

I run into them online, They're really not that bright. What is worse is they have no real interest in finding out What and Why we say/think what we do.