"If I were asked to trace the decline of the American psyche, I suppose I would go to a set of cultural changes that started directly after World War II and built over the next few decades, when writers as diverse as Philip Rieff, Christopher Lasch and Tom Wolfe noticed the emergence of what came to be known as the therapeutic culture.

In earlier cultural epochs, many people derived their self-worth from their relationship with God, or from their ability to be a winner in the commercial marketplace. But in a therapeutic culture people’s sense of self-worth depends on their subjective feelings about themselves. Do I feel good about myself? Do I like me?

From the start, many writers noticed that this ethos often turned people into fragile narcissists. It cut them off from moral traditions and the normal sources of meaning and identity. It pushed them in on themselves, made them self-absorbed, craving public affirmation so they could feel good about themselves. As Lasch wrote in his 1979 book, “The Culture of Narcissism,” such people are plagued by an insecurity that can be “overcome only by seeing his ‘grandiose self’ reflected in the attentions of others.”

Lasch continued: “Plagued by anxiety, depression, vague discontents, a sense of inner emptiness, the ‘psychological man’ of the 20th century seeks neither individual self-aggrandizement nor spiritual transcendence but peace of mind, under conditions that increasingly militate against it.”

Fast forward a few decades, and the sense of lostness and insecurity, which Lasch and many others had seen in nascent form, had transmogrified into a roaring epidemic of psychic pain. By, say, 2010, it began to be clear that we were in the middle of a mental health crisis, with rising depression and suicide rates, an epidemic of hopelessness and despair among the young. Social media became a place where people went begging for attention, validation and affirmation — even if they often found rejection instead.

Before long, safetyism was on the march. This is the assumption that people are so fragile they need to be protected from social harm. Slate magazine proclaimed 2013 “the year of the trigger warning.” Concepts like “microaggression” and “safe spaces” couldn’t have lagged far behind.

This was accompanied by what you might call the elephantiasis of trauma. Once, the word “trauma” referred to brutal physical wounding one might endure in war or through abuse. But usage of the word spread so that it was applied across a range of upsetting experiences.

A mega-best-selling book about trauma, “The Body Keeps the Score,” by Bessel van der Kolk, became the defining cultural artifact of the era. Parul Sehgal wrote a perceptive piece in The New Yorker called “The Case Against the Trauma Plot,” noting how many characters in novels, memoirs and TV shows are trying to recover from psychological trauma — from Ted Lasso on down. In January 2022, Vox declared that “trauma” had become “the word of the decade,” noting that there were over 5,500 podcasts with the word in the title.

For many people, trauma became their source of identity. People began defining themselves by the way they had been hurt."

Of course, the first question is whether there was a decline of American psyche.

On Sunday, August 13, 2023 at 1:15:38 AM UTC-4, David P. wrote:
> ltlee1 wrote:
> > "If I were asked to trace the decline of the American psyche, I suppose I would go to a set of cultural changes that started directly after World War II and built over the next few decades, when writers as diverse as Philip Rieff, Christopher Lasch and Tom Wolfe noticed the emergence of what came to be known as the therapeutic culture.
> >
> > In earlier cultural epochs, many people derived their self-worth from their relationship with God, or from their ability to be a winner in the commercial marketplace. But in a therapeutic culture people’s sense of self-worth depends on their subjective feelings about themselves. Do I feel good about myself? Do I like me?
> >
> > From the start, many writers noticed that this ethos often turned people into fragile narcissists. It cut them off from moral traditions and the normal sources of meaning and identity. It pushed them in on themselves, made them self-absorbed, craving public affirmation so they could feel good about themselves. As Lasch wrote in his 1979 book, “The Culture of Narcissism,” such people are plagued by an insecurity that can be “overcome only by seeing his ‘grandiose self’ reflected in the attentions of others.”
> >
> > Lasch continued: “Plagued by anxiety, depression, vague discontents, a sense of inner emptiness, the ‘psychological man’ of the 20th century seeks neither individual self-aggrandizement nor spiritual transcendence but peace of mind, under conditions that increasingly militate against it.”
> >
> > Fast forward a few decades, and the sense of lostness and insecurity, which Lasch and many others had seen in nascent form, had transmogrified into a roaring epidemic of psychic pain. By, say, 2010, it began to be clear that we were in the middle of a mental health crisis, with rising depression and suicide rates, an epidemic of hopelessness and despair among the young.. Social media became a place where people went begging for attention, validation and affirmation — even if they often found rejection instead..
> >
> > Before long, safetyism was on the march. This is the assumption that people are so fragile they need to be protected from social harm. Slate magazine proclaimed 2013 “the year of the trigger warning.” Concepts like “microaggression” and “safe spaces” couldn’t have lagged far behind.
> >
> > This was accompanied by what you might call the elephantiasis of trauma.. Once, the word “trauma” referred to brutal physical wounding one might endure in war or through abuse. But usage of the word spread so that it was applied across a range of upsetting experiences.
> >
> > A mega-best-selling book about trauma, “The Body Keeps the Score,” by Bessel van der Kolk, became the defining cultural artifact of the era. Parul Sehgal wrote a perceptive piece in The New Yorker called “The Case Against the Trauma Plot,” noting how many characters in novels, memoirs and TV shows are trying to recover from psychological trauma — from Ted Lasso on down. In January 2022, Vox declared that “trauma” had become “the word of the decade,” noting that there were over 5,500 podcasts with the word in the title.
> >
> > For many people, trauma became their source of identity. People began defining themselves by the way they had been hurt."
> >
> > Of course, the first question is whether there was a decline of American psyche.
> ------------------------
> South Korea’s ‘Don’t Ask Why’ Stabbings Prompt New Debate on Criminal Punishment
> By Jiyoung Sohn and Timothy W. Martin, Aug. 4, 2023, WSJ
>
> The 22-year-old man involved in the Thursday attack was a high-school dropout who had been diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder but hadn’t received proper treatment, local police said. During questioning, the man said he believed an unidentified group of people had wanted to kill him, police said.
>
> South Korea has a poor record in mental-health assistance—a factor that psychology experts and activists say contributes to the country’s suicide rate, which for nearly two decades has been the highest among OECD members. Seeking mental-health treatment still carries a social stigma and can serve as grounds for a health-insurance company to reject coverage, local experts say.
>
> Before the Thursday incident, South Korea had seen two other high-profile violent attacks this year involving young people under apparent mental distress. A 23-year-old woman in May killed a university student she had met through a tutoring app using a fake identity. Criminal psychologists involved in the case have said the woman appeared motivated by her envy of the victim’s social status and academic background.
>
> On July 21, a man in his early 30s killed one and injured 3 others in a knife attack near a subway station in southern Seoul. He told police that he “had no will to live” when arrested and said during interrogations that he had “lived a miserable life and wanted to make others miserable, too.”
>
> The recent cases shed light on the serious risk to society from a growing number of young people who appear to be disgruntled and possess distorted views about their situation, said Yoon Jeong-sook, director of crime analysis and research at the state-owned Korean Institute of Criminology and Justice.
>
> The government could increase awareness of job-training programs and youth counseling centers, as well as make greater efforts to identify and reach those most in need early on, she added. “We need to think about ways to better address the rising income polarization among South Korea’s youth and create stronger safety nets for those who have fallen behind or are marginalized,” Yoon said.
>
> https://www.wsj.com/articles/south-koreas-dont-ask-why-stabbings-prompt-new-debate-on-criminal-punishment-486e9aa7
> --
> --

NYT columnist/author David Brook sees America in the midst of a roaring epidemic of psychic pain. And since
2010 the US was "in the middle of a mental health crisis, with rising depression and suicide rates, an epidemic of
hopelessness and despair among the young. "

In the WSJ article on stabbling in South Korea, a high school dropout diagnosed with schizoid personality
disorder but hadn’t received proper treatment, and he told police that "he had no will to live."

Please elaborate on in what way the two is related.
For instance, are you suggesting South Korea society would need to be grow up like the US sooner or later?
Or David Brook should not ask America to grow up because 'Don't ask why' is an appropriate societal response?

On Saturday, August 12, 2023 at 8:24:36 AM UTC-4, ltlee1 wrote:
> "If I were asked to trace the decline of the American psyche, I suppose I would go to a set of cultural changes that started directly after World War II and built over the next few decades, when writers as diverse as Philip Rieff, Christopher Lasch and Tom Wolfe noticed the emergence of what came to be known as the therapeutic culture.
>
> In earlier cultural epochs, many people derived their self-worth from their relationship with God, or from their ability to be a winner in the commercial marketplace. But in a therapeutic culture people’s sense of self-worth depends on their subjective feelings about themselves. Do I feel good about myself? Do I like me?
>
> From the start, many writers noticed that this ethos often turned people into fragile narcissists. It cut them off from moral traditions and the normal sources of meaning and identity. It pushed them in on themselves, made them self-absorbed, craving public affirmation so they could feel good about themselves. As Lasch wrote in his 1979 book, “The Culture of Narcissism,” such people are plagued by an insecurity that can be “overcome only by seeing his ‘grandiose self’ reflected in the attentions of others.”
>
> Lasch continued: “Plagued by anxiety, depression, vague discontents, a sense of inner emptiness, the ‘psychological man’ of the 20th century seeks neither individual self-aggrandizement nor spiritual transcendence but peace of mind, under conditions that increasingly militate against it.”
>
> Fast forward a few decades, and the sense of lostness and insecurity, which Lasch and many others had seen in nascent form, had transmogrified into a roaring epidemic of psychic pain. By, say, 2010, it began to be clear that we were in the middle of a mental health crisis, with rising depression and suicide rates, an epidemic of hopelessness and despair among the young. Social media became a place where people went begging for attention, validation and affirmation — even if they often found rejection instead.
>
> Before long, safetyism was on the march. This is the assumption that people are so fragile they need to be protected from social harm. Slate magazine proclaimed 2013 “the year of the trigger warning.” Concepts like “microaggression” and “safe spaces” couldn’t have lagged far behind.
>
> This was accompanied by what you might call the elephantiasis of trauma. Once, the word “trauma” referred to brutal physical wounding one might endure in war or through abuse. But usage of the word spread so that it was applied across a range of upsetting experiences.
>
> A mega-best-selling book about trauma, “The Body Keeps the Score,” by Bessel van der Kolk, became the defining cultural artifact of the era. Parul Sehgal wrote a perceptive piece in The New Yorker called “The Case Against the Trauma Plot,” noting how many characters in novels, memoirs and TV shows are trying to recover from psychological trauma — from Ted Lasso on down. In January 2022, Vox declared that “trauma” had become “the word of the decade,” noting that there were over 5,500 podcasts with the word in the title.
>
> For many people, trauma became their source of identity. People began defining themselves by the way they had been hurt."
>
> Of course, the first question is whether there was a decline of American psyche.

Widespread pain and suffering in the US is self evident. Whether one calls it a decline of American
psyche is not as meaning as finding the cause or causes.

First of all let me unpack the short paragraph which seems to pinpoint the cause of "decline"
which leads to the emergence of therapeutic culture per David Brooks:

"In earlier cultural epochs, many people derived their self-worth from their relationship with God,
or from their ability to be a winner in the commercial marketplace. But in a therapeutic culture
people’s sense of self-worth depends on their subjective feelings about themselves. Do I feel
good about myself? Do I like me?"

Clarification: People's sense of self-worth ALWAYS depends on their subjective feelings, past of
present. However, subjective feelings could reflect communal/social standard or it could reflect
individual/freedom standard.

Thus viewed, the cultural change described by David Brooks is from the standard of the community
or society to the standard of the self and freedom this self should be allowed.

What is a therapeutic culture?
In short, the self or a small number of self (as in group therapy) is always needing help from other
people.

Given the widespread pain and suffering, the change from broad based communal (religious or
nonreligious) to a narrowly based self/individual freedom maximizing standard mal-adaptive in
the short term. Of course, the question is whether this change is a learning process. And short
term pain would inevitably leads to long term gain.