Episode 25: How Bad Therapy Ruined a Generation (ft. Abigail Shrier)

About the Episode

If the story of humanity is about loss, privation, suffering, and resilience, why are kids having nervous breakdowns about bad grades?

In today’s episode, I talked to Abigail Shrier about what parents and mental health experts are inadvertently doing to rob young people of the resilience and grit that past generations had.

It’s a spicy one. Enjoy.

Abigail Shrier Quotes From the Episode

“We’ve never had a generation more focused on its feelings and, frankly, not one more tyrannized by their feelings.”

“This was a generation flooded with what I call bad therapy. They are swimming in the language of psychopathology, and it’s making them sick.”

“We’re telling kids that they aren’t resilient, that their trauma is so important. No, actually, the story of human beings, of humanity, is loss, privation, suffering, and resilience, overcoming it.”

“[Kids’] emotional pain is always front and center. It’s always magnified. It’s been magnified by their parents since they were little. And now they show up at work and all they are is feeling pain all day long.”