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One Nation Under Therapy: How the Helping Culture is Eroding Self-Reliance        Written by: Christina Hoff Sommers, Sally Satel        Narrated by: Dianna Dorman        Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins        Format: Unabridged    Release Date:09-10-07    Publisher’s Summary    Americans have traditionally placed great value on self-reliance and fortitude. Recent decades, however, have seen the rise of a therapeutic ethic that views Americans as emotionally underdeveloped, requiring the ministrations of mental-health professionals to cope with life’s vicissitudes. Today, having a book for every ailment, a counselor for every crisis, a lawsuit for every grievance, and a TV show for every problem degrades one’s native ability to cope with life’s challenges.    Drawing on established science and common sense, the authors reveal how “therapism” and the burgeoning trauma industry have come to pervade our lives. Topical, provocative, and wryly amusing, One Nation Under Therapy demonstrates that “talking about” problems is no substitute for confronting them.    What the Critics Say    “[Sommers and Satel] review the relevant literature, letting its conclusions speak for themselves…they don’t have to apply spin to be convincing….Well-written, well-informed public affairs argumentation.” (Booklist)    “Sommers and Satel’s book is a summons to the sensible worry that national enfeeblement must result when ‘therapism’ replaces the virtues on which the republic was founded: stoicism, self-reliance, and courage.” (Washington Post)    5.0 out of 5 stars Please, no guilt by association, May 2, 2005    By    J. W. Bush (Brooklyn, NY USA) – See all my reviews    (REAL NAME)      This review is from: One Nation Under Therapy: How the Helping Culture Is Eroding Self-Reliance (Hardcover)    Reviewers have noted that the authors are affiliated with the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. I suggest that no one take this as having any bearing, pro or con, on the merits of the book. As a unabashed liberal in most matters, I am appalled by what has happened to this country since 1980 and am embarrassed to share a middle initial and surname with the current President. Yet as a clinical psychologist I can confirm much of what Sommers and Satel say about the blight of “therapism” that has overtaken us in the last 30 or so years. Painful as it may be to admit, every now and then there comes a conservative who gets something right. Sommers and Satel are two such. The case they make deserves to be taken quite seriously.    0    Help other customers find the most helpful reviews    Was this review helpful to you? Yes No    Report abuse | Permalink    Comment Comments (5)    73 of 81 people found the following review helpful    5.0 out of 5 stars A book that needs to be seriously looked at, May 9, 2005    By    Brooklyn reviewer – See all my reviews    This review is from: One Nation Under Therapy: How the Helping Culture Is Eroding Self-Reliance (Hardcover)    I believe that the review by Hara Marano, posted by another reader, misstates much of what the book has to say. Interestingly, the authors are not at all against psychotherapy per se. They are against a culture which medicalizes certain disorders so as to reduce the sense of individual responsibility for the choices that people make. At the same time, they are against a species of one-size-fits-all turnkey psychotherapy promulgated and administered by what I, for many years, have referred to as the “trauma mafia.” This term may be unfair as many of these individuals are caring and well-meaning. Sommers and Satel maintain that many of these interventions are unnecessary and sometimes have unintentional negative effects in that they may interfere with help naturally present in community and psyche.    Some reviews have mainted that trauma counselors, whom the authors criticize, no longer use those methods that the authors are critical of. Were this only the case! I would… Read more    Help other customers find the most helpful reviews    Was this review helpful to you? Yes No    Report abuse | Permalink    Comment Comment    39 of 45 people found the following review helpful    5.0 out of 5 stars An engaging, provocative, and excellent book, May 2, 2005    By    Richard J. McNally (Cambridge, Massachusetts) – See all my reviews    (REAL NAME)      This review is from: One Nation Under Therapy: How the Helping Culture Is Eroding Self-Reliance (Hardcover)    Contrary to the misreadings of some reviewers, Sommers and Satel are not attacking therapy. Indeed, the second author practices psychiatry in an inner city drug abuse clinic. Rather, the authors provide a refreshingly trenchant critique of the inappropriate extrapolation of the therapeutic ethos to settings where it does not belong and may, in fact, be harmful. More importantly, their conclusions are well-grounded in empirical research, as anyone perusing their abundant endnotes can see. “One Nation Under Therapy” will doubtlessly incite powerful emotional reactions, both pro and con. But if it also stimulates critical thought about “therapism” in our culture, it will count as a resounding success.    0