Counsellors, psychotherapists and other paid handholders are, for the most part, a waste of space. Far better to stick with the methods that work – stoicism, repression or a drug or two and, if they fail, a glass of whisky, a revolver, one bullet and a dignified, but brief, note of farewell. A new and, I suspect, fascinating book is coming out in Britain that takes a refreshingly critical look at the cult of the counselor and that the damage that it does. The Daily Telegraph takes up the story:
“Therapy Culture, subtitled Cultivating vulnerability in an uncertain age, argues that contemporary society encourages people to feel traumatised and depressed by experiences hitherto regarded as routine. Children as young as four are regarded as legitimate objects of therapeutic intervention; we are informed that every stage in life involves such grave risks as to require counselling. ..His argument is not the familiar one that the once stoical British have become emotionally incontinent under New Labour. It is broader and more disturbing than that. The therapeutic ethos, says Furedi, is attempting to impose a new conformity through the management of people’s emotions, by inciting them to feel powerless and ill.”
The paper notes that “the publishers of Therapy Culture expect it to “upset a lot of people” when it comes out later this month. That seems a reasonable prediction.”
Will the counselors need counselling?