In Therapy We Trust: America'S Obsession With Selffulfillment,Used

From Selfesteem Talk On Oprah To Selfhelp Books Like Negaholics And Your Sacred Self, From Magazine Quizzes That Test Your 'Happiness Quotient' To Headlines Blaring The Supposed Deepest Emotions Of Public Figureswe Live In An Age Fixated On Emotional Wellbeing. Rich Or Poor, Black Or White, Male Or Female, Straight Or Gay, Americans Share A Belief In The Therapeutic Gospel. Feelings Reveal Inner Truth; Salvation Lies In Selfesteem. We Measure Success With A Psychological Yardstick.As Eva Moskowitz Argues, Americans Today Turn To Psychological Cures As Confidently As They Once Petitioned The Lord With Prayer. How Did The Land Of The Free Become Obsessed With Selffulfillment? Has America Gained Or Lost By Placing So Much Emphasis On Personal Wellbeing? Taking A Historical Approach, Moskowitz Explores The Country'S Tendency To Find Psychological Explanationsand Excusesfor Nearly Everything.Beginning With The Example Of A 'Mind Cure' Developed By Midnineteenthcentury Clockmaker Phineas P. Quimby, Moskowitz Explains How Americans' Growing Fascination With Therapy Led Them To Adopt New Kinds Of Reformincluding, At The Turn Of The Twentieth Century, Provisions For Psychological Services In Prisons, Courts, Hospitals, And Schools. Depressionera Divorce Rates Prompted Colleges And High Schools To Offer Courses On Marital Happiness And Produced A New Marriagecounseling Industry. During World War Ii, Moskowitz Shows, The Army Devoted Unprecedented Energy To A Soldier'S 'Psychological Readiness For Combat.' Moskowitz Also Explores More Recent Developments, Including Cold Warera Psychological Assumptions Of Magazine Campaigns That Targeted Unhappy Housewives. She Confronts The Social Protest Movements In The 60S And The Explosion Of 70S Selfhelp Fads That Continue To The Present.In A Study That Encompasses All Aspects Of American Societyfrom Television Talk Shows To The Criminal Justice System, From Office Politics To World Politicsmoskowitz Identifies A Debilitating 'Sense Of Self' That Is Intimately Bound Up With The Major Developments Of The Twentieth Century.