Bad Therapy, Woke Schooling
Abigail Shrier's exposé on the failures of psychiatry and education
This might be my longest post to date. So, strap-in and grab your helmet. Grab your life jacket — Or don’t.
Taking some risks in life is better for your mental health, apparently.
Abigail Shrier wrote the books, Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren't Growing Up and Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters [affiliate links]. I have read both, but today we are discussing the former.
"Every parent should read this [Bad Therapy]." - Elon Musk
As it turns out, kids are probably receiving TOO much therapy these days.
Nevertheless, parents my age have been signing up their kids and teens for therapy in astonishing numbers, even prophylactically. I talked to moms who hired therapists to help their kids adjust to preschool or to process the death of a beloved cat. One mom told me she put a therapist "on retainer" as soon as her two daughters reached middle school. "So they would have someone to talk to about all the things I never wanted to talk about with my mom." - Abigail Shrier
It is tough to be a kid in school right now. From the Chinese Communist Party spending millions to indoctrinate you (check out my last post) — to public school teachers increasingly becoming a bunch of weirdos — there are not many places to turn. If your parents are far left as well, look out, you are likely to be a troubled youth.
The treatment-prevalence paradox is also the norm. Young people are conditioned to believe that they must be mentally ill, that psychotherapy should happen daily, and that everyone should receive special treatment and accommodations.
The treatment-prevalence paradox (TPP) is the idea that the availability of better treatments has not led to a decrease in the prevalence of depression. Treatments for depression have improved and become more widely available since the 1980s, but the prevalence of depression has not decreased.
The problem with TPP is that even people with good intentions will falsely equate compassion with enabling. Empathy is not promoting or normalizing acts that hurt the person engaging in those acts. Emotional intelligence is valuable, but thinking about how you feel all the time will decrease your levels of happiness or contentment. Garnering the skills to understand people is useful. But, people who grow up today struggle with tolerating the basic stresses of life. Not all stress is bad, some anxieties help make us more productive.
Maybe more people should strive to be antifragile.
Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better." — Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Recent Developments
Although smartphones and social media play a part in the increased stress surrounding students, Shrier does not believe that is the main culprit. She believes the rise of therapy everywhere, including in the classrooms, is one of the main causes of the increased belief that everyone is mentally ill.
In fact, students are often subjected to discussions of sadness and suicide in the classroom.
In one passage in the book, Shrier relays an anecdote from a public school in Salt Lake City. When a fifth-grade teacher asked her students, “What is something that is making you really sad right now?,” one student spoke up about his father’s girlfriend, another began crying about her parents’ divorce. Shortly, half the class was in tears. “It was time for the math lesson; no one wanted to do it,” Shrier writes, citing conversations with students’ parents.
This does not mean that Shrier is against therapy per se, but it has its time and place. Should a family practitioner ask every adolescent whether they have experienced thoughts of suicide recently? Maybe not. Again, the intention of the doctor is not to harm, but in some cases, that might be the result. Most kids tend to be happier when not asked about their impending demise. In most cases, these kids probably had not thought much about such a thing.
A few moms told me, in roundabout verbiage, that they had hired a therapist to surveil their surly teen's thoughts and feelings. The therapist doesn't tell me what my daughter says exactly, the moms assured me, but she sort of lets me know everything's okay. And occasionally, I gathered, the therapist relayed to Mom specific information gleaned from the little prisoner of war. - Shrier
Recent years have also made it tough on one’s social life. Kids have never been kept indoors as much as they have since COVID. Between the solitary confinement of lockdowns to public schools - a child’s existence is more and more like a prison.
That is not an environment conducive to brain development, creative thinking, or rational dialogue. Kids are told to suffer from made-up bullshit like, climate anxiety, colonized curriculum, and systemic racism. Ridiculous.
Get out of the kids’ heads, Greta Thurnberg.
Iatrogenesis? - when the healer makes things worse. Therapists don’t like to discuss it.
From the Greek word iatros, iatrogenesis means harm brought forth by a healer or any unintended adverse patient outcome because of a health care intervention, not considered the natural course of the illness or injury.
The first thought that comes to my mind is, Munchausen by Proxy.
Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MBP), also known as fabricated or induced illness by carers (FIIC), is a mental illness and form of child abuse where a caregiver makes up or exaggerates symptoms in another person, usually their child.
Shrier points out, that not all therapy is good therapy.
Parents often assume that therapy with a well-meaning professional can only help a child or adolescent's emotional development. Big mistake. Like any intervention with the potential to help, therapy can harm.
A Critical Look at "Bad Therapy"
The book provides an overview of many of the common occurrences in public schools and backs it up with hard data. Social Emotional Learning is the new way to push Critical Theory, DEI, and social justice on unsuspecting young people.
Talk therapy can induce rumination, trapping children in cycles of anxiety and depression
Social Emotional Learning handicaps our most vulnerable children, in both public schools and private
“Gentle parenting” can encourage emotional turbulence – even violence – in children as they lash out, desperate for an adult in charge
As Shrier points out, for many youth, the cure can be worse than the disease.
“Shrier persuasively and forcefully demonstrates how mental health professionals (and some parents) often make things worse for the kids and adolescents they aim to help."—Elizabeth Loftus, distinguished professor of psychological science at University of California, Irvine
Should Psychotherapy Come With a Warning Label?
One thing that might come as a surprise to many is that discussing that idea of trauma can increase said trauma. Discussing the idea that a tragic event should give you PTSD, can increase your symptoms of PTSD. This may seem counterintuitive, but Shrier points to the fact there are many studies supporting this narrative.
For decades, the standard therapy proffered to victims of disaster-terrorist attack, combat, severe burn injury-was the "psychological debriefing." A therapist would invite victims of a tragedy into a group session in which participants were encouraged to "process" their negative emotions, learned to recognize the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and discouraged from discontinuing therapy. Study after study has shown that this bare-bones process is sufficient to make PTSD symptoms worse.
Well-meaning therapists often act as though talking through your problems with a professional is good for everyone. That isn't so. Nor is it the case that as long as the therapist is following protocols, and has good intentions, the patient is bound to get better.Any intervention potent enough to cure is also powerful enough to hurt. Therapy is no benign folk remedy. It can provide relief. It can also deliver unintended harm and does so in up to 20 percent of patients.
So, we should remember that last part. Sometimes PTSD is real and needs to be addressed. Most of these therapists and psychiatrists do not have bad intentions. They are trying their best, but sometimes our best efforts are still not the right approach to solving a problem.
Therapy can also make you believe you are sick when you are not.
Therapy can lead a client to understand herself as sick and rearrange her self-understanding around a diagnosis. Therapy can encourage family estrangement-coming to realize that it's all Mom's fault and you never want to see her again. Therapy can exacerbate marital stress, compromise a patient's resilience, render a patient more traumatized, more depressed, and undermine her self-efficacy so she's less able to turn her life around. Therapy may lead a patient by degrees-sunk into a leather sofa, well-placed tissue box close at hand-to become overly dependent on her therapist.
It is also interesting that sitting in a room full of sad sops and listening to them whine about their problems can also increase your PTSD.
Police officers who responded to a plane crash and then underwent debriefing sessions exhibited more disaster-related hyperarousal symptoms eighteen months later than those who did not receive the treatment. Burn victims exhibited more anxiety after therapy than those left untreated. Breast cancer patients have left peer support groups feeling worse about their condition than those who opted out. And counseling sessions for normal bereavement often make it harder, not easier, for mourners to recover from loss. Some people who say they "just don't want to talk about it" know better than the experts what will help them: spending time with family; exercising; putting one foot in front of the other; gradually adjusting to the loss.
Here are five major factors to help increase one’s mental health. Some (or all) of these are frowned upon in public schools.
In the Harvard Grant Study, the world’s longest running and most comprehensive psychological study, the five most mature, healthy defense mechanisms associated with higher life satisfaction were:
1. Altruism: focusing on others’ wellbeing
2. Humor: making light of difficult or stressful events or experiences
3. Sublimation: turning anger or frustration into productive energy
4. Anticipation: maintaining a realistic view of the future and its difficulties
5. Suppression: consciously suppressing unproductive and distressing thoughts
Number 1 is totally out for your average college professor. They advocate for narcissism and self-loathing far too often. Humor is no longer allowed at university. Everyone from Seinfeld to Chappelle has stopped going to campuses because it is a waste of time. Sublimation is great. When I am in a bad mood, I go for a run. Unfortunately, obesity is up quite a bit in this country, which leads to negative emotions and chemical imbalances. Anticipation - make your stresses and goals smaller and more manageable. Suppression is probably the most controversial - but if you ruminate on negative thoughts or the idea that you are supposed to feel bad, then you will feel bad. Avoid this. You will feel better.
Therapy, on the other hand, can have negative consequences. I am okay with cognitive behavioral therapy, as one of the objectives is to stop you from ruminating on the negative. But, as Shrier points out, “an embarrassing number of psychological interventions have little proven efficacy. They have nonetheless been applied with great élan to children and adolescents.”
Not all of these lackluster outcomes are the result of bad intentions. Many people have had the best of intentions, but again, as Shrier points out, wanting to help is not the same as helping.
Psychotherapy Needs a Warning Label
Are Americans overmedicated? I would resoundingly say, yes. If you moderate your sleep, caloric intake, exercise, socializing, and work schedule you are bound to be more content. Is that everything? Of course not. But for many, it is a start. Make your goals smaller and easier to manage. Jordan Peterson recommends starting with making your bed.
However, public schools have dropped DARE programs and said YES to drugs — albeit legal ones.
Talking about helping others without doing anything sounds a bit too much like socialism to me. Social Emotional Learning is an effort to bring a bit of that into the classroom. SEL training sometimes involves instructing students to report on their parents.
Restorative Justice (RJ) is the new Orwellian phrase parasitizing our education system. It rejects self-control, discipline, and independence in favor of the argument that all your actions are the result of oppression. This is typical Marxist “historical materialism” - the view that you do not have free will and are simply a product of your environment.
This article from The Hill states…
…our educational system faces three interlocking crises: severe academic underperformance, rampant student misbehavior and an unprecedented teacher shortage.
While there are many components to each of these issues, one common thread linking and exacerbating them all is the turn toward so-called restorative justice in schools.
Unsurprisingly, none of this works. Part of RJ is not punishing those who misbehave and instead forcing victims to sit down with the student who harmed them. This is completely ineffective and demeaning to the victim.
These students likely do not have PTSD, but therapy can convince you everyone has PTSD.
It should have been obvious that academic outcomes would get worse if students could misbehave with impunity.
Inner city schools are suffering as a result of this nonsense. Violence is up. Reading, writing, and arithmetic are all way down.
It is no surprise that, without these disciplinary measures, teachers’ time is more consistently wasted on classroom management, students are more consistently disrupted and chaos reigns. And chaotic environments are not ideal for academic learning.
We are on the tail-end of the self-esteem movement that started way back in the ‘60s. American culture is getting sick of these public school degenerates running the show and we will likely see an educational revolution happen soon, if it is not happening already. The rise in homeschooling and support for school choice is growing.
The Book
The author of Bad Therapy takes on major issues that people fear to speak about openly. She uses research to back up her points, but also just drops a heck of a lot of common sense. I highly recommend reading this book and then buying a few copies to hand out to your friends and family.
One thing is for sure, even if you disagree with Abigail Shrier, she is far more likely to have an open and frank discussion about it than what is currently accepted on college campuses.
The Author's Stance
Here are a few takeaways.
Talk therapy can induce rumination, trapping children in cycles of anxiety and depression
Social Emotional Learning handicaps our most vulnerable children, in both public schools and private
“Gentle parenting” can encourage emotional turbulence – even violence – in children as they lash out, desperate for an adult in charge. (Jordan Peterson also says that kids are looking for rules to follow - adults must provide them)
The author shares concerns about the implementation of SEL (Social-Emotional Learning) and Restorative Justice in schools, highlighting potentially negative consequences.
Shrier criticizes the potential for SEL programs to intrude on personal boundaries and force sensitive disclosures.
The book raises concerns about the potential for over-emphasis on trauma and diagnoses (PTSD), potentially causing the problems therapy purports to solve.
The book is not a signal that all therapy should be thrown out, but it does provide some insights that can be useful.
Restorative Justice has only increased violence in schools. White progressives and socialists will hold it up as the end all be all, but we should not fall for their white guilt complex. That is their problem to deal with. Children should not be forced into Social Emotional Learning and other wildly ineffective Marxist indoctrination camps.
The old-fashioned “knock it off, shake it off parenting” is probably still the best style. Helicopter or overly controlling parents are not helpful. “Gentle parenting” has led to a generation of fragile kids who believe they can somehow avoid all stress in life. This leads to greater numbers of people not pursuing the basics of life like work, dating, marriage, having children, or any sense of responsibility whatsoever. Birth rates in the West are way down and this is part of the reason.
High levels of independence are an important part of growing up. Too much focus on empathy can be detrimental. Overpraising children or students for doing nothing does not work.
Summer camps, bike rides, and unsupervised play are important to development. Take on personal responsibility. Embrace reasonable levels of risk.
And above all, avoid communist college professors at all costs.
This is not meant to disparage all therapist nor patients who see them. I am not a therapist and my comments are not about individuals but a generalization of men and women. My perspective comes from my research of men’s health.
Patients should be aware that the American Psychiatric Assoc (APA) has been captured by Woke practitioners. This group is openly hostile to traditional masculinity (misandrist). They seek to feminize men using the philosophy that femininity is morally superior to masculinity.
Many people don’t realize the impact this has on counsiling. 80% of therapist are female. To my knowledge, there is no major DEI movement to change this disparity. My understanding is that many therapist treat men from the same perspective as they do women. Essentially telling men that to achieve wellness, they just need to express their feelings. This is certainly not a bad thing taken as a whole. Cognitive behavioral therapy has been successful in many cases for decades.
However, it’s becoming more apparent that it’s not advantageous for men to make the primary focus of therapy talking about their feelings incessantly. Nor to demean or disparage what makes them a man. Their masculinity. Essentially feminizing their frame of reference. Men tend to do better when the primary focus is on concrete solutions. Women appear to do better when the primary focus is on talking about their feelings and the sense that they are being heard.
‘Bad Therapy’, explained.