Therapy culture

As I browsed through the new books section at my local library recently, I was struck by the number that were about therapy and counselling. There were books about anxiety and stress, and about various phobias, including social phobia, otherwise known as shyness. There was a chunky hardback on how to be happy and contented. The library now has a large number of popular therapeutic books. What can be the reason for this? At the superficial level, the reason is that more such books are being written, therefore it makes sense that more are being bought.

There is, however, a cultural reason why more and more popular therapy books are being churned out. The prevailing culture encourages us to feel vulnerable and delicate, unable to cope with life without help and support. Even life’s everyday challenges are pathologised. Notice how fortitude and bravery are words very little heard these days. Even in the army, a profession that should represent the ne plus ultra of fortitude and bravery, we have Gulf war syndrome and post traumatic stress disorder.

Given this trend, it is not surprising that self therapeutic books have become so popular. I am not interested in the chicken and egg question, whether the books created the culture or the culture created the books. It’s fair to say that the more such books are written, the more the culture of vulnerability becomes entrenched. A quick search on Amazon and ebay confirms just how popular these books are.

A quick browse through several of the books at the library confirmed my prejudice- they are full of pap. Much of the advice is repetitive and commonsense dressed up as something better and original. There is no analytical or critical perspective of any sort. Books of this genre make no addition to accumulated knowledge. I suspect they do not make people happier either, as they fork out more money to buy the ‘Also available’ titles listed at the back, about a condition they were hitherto unaware they had.