December 2005    

One Nation Under Therapy: How the Helping Culture is Eroding Self-Reliance Author: Christina Hoff Sommers Publisher: St Martin's Press $23.95 Cloth (310 p.) ISBN: 0312304439 B&T         YBP Reviewed by Cathy Boylan, Marketing Manager, Europe Christina Hoff Sommers is known as a critic of modern feminism. This new book, co-written with Sally Satel, M.D., takes on America's therapy culture, an outcome of feminist thinking which obsesses over stress, emotional frailty, grief and depression while denigrating the concepts of stoicism, resilience and emotional strength. Therapism pervades American culture (and British too). Its many advocates, often professionals and officials making a good living from its tenets, have spread their theory into the workplace, medicine, education, religion, the law, and even the military. Examining policy and practice in all these fields, the authors show how the notion of human resilience and robustness has been systematically eroded in favor of an insistence that children, men and women are essentially fragile. The doctrine applied to children holds that all children are emotionally fragile and should be treated as if disturbed or potentially disturbed. Competition, even competitive play, is damaging. Setbacks, even minor ones, are likely to devastate. If they can't be avoided, they should be treated with counseling. The book fishes out many examples of the therapeutic mindset, such as the erasure of Black scientist George Washington Carver from a Riverside Publishing national achievement test. Carver had developed new uses for peanuts and the censors feared that students with peanut allergies might be upset. Equally, a story comparing a tree stump, alive with insects, with an apartment building, was deleted in case "an emotional response may be triggered" in children from housing projects. Even the Girl Scouts of America introduced a Stress Less Badge, earned by writing a 'feelings diary', giving foot massage and learning 'focused breathing.' In adult life, too, feelings have been elevated over resilience and rational thinking. People are increasingly told they can't cope without the help of therapy. Invading every area of public and private life, the authors argue, the philosophy has led to a syndrome for every response, an excuse for every crime, counselors for every crisis and lawsuits for every grievance. That therapism presents itself as helpful and caring only masks the reality that it disarms its 'clients'. This debilitating philosophy, argue the authors, flies in the face of current and historical evidence that humans can withstand a good deal of rough wear and tear. The American Enterprise Institute, with which both Satel and Hoff Sommers are affiliated, is a body that was well-thought of by Ronald Regan and is well-regarded today by George Bush. Nevertheless, the right has no unique claim to the view that mankind is, and benefits from being, robust. Presenting solid scientific research which investigates the claims of the therapy culture, there are strong arguments here against the entrenched practice of professionalising human relationships and social support to the detriment of family contact and social networks. There are also strong challenges to claims that talking to counselors and dwelling on problems and negative experiences is healthy or curative. Often the very starting points of therapism - that children are likely to be psychologically damaged by competitive games, for example - are discounted by reference to well-conducted research and to common sense drawn from experience. But the book doesn't throw the baby out with the bath water. It acknowledges that, of course, people can hit crises, and, of course, people can be in need of help. Talking at length -'venting' feelings - may help naturally expressive people but coercing others to be more expressive than comes naturally may be actively harmful. Thus, the argument is against the therapists' insistence on conformity: everyone is fragile; everyone needs therapy. The overall thrust is that therapism, in pathologising normal responses, in misdiagnosing millions and attributing helplessness and defeat to them - which can only be overcome by the therapists - is doing a serious disservice to individuals and to society. The argument is one that has many implications -- social, political and legal. And perhaps its time has come. This is a book which should find a place in public health, sociology, culture studies, psychiatry and psychology, politics and American Studies collections. Published by YBP Library Services 999 Maple St., Contoocook, NH 03229 USA v: 800.258.3774   f: 603.746.5628 w: www.ybp.com   e: academia@ybp.com All rights reserved.