...Scourge of the elites
Lasch identified the emergence of a ‘therapeutic sensibility’ alongside the rise of narcissism: ‘People today hunger not for personal salvation, let alone for the restoration of an earlier golden age, but for the feeling, the momentary illusion, of personal wellbeing, health, and psychic security.’ Along with Philip Rieff, Lasch was one of the trailblazers in diagnosing the deleterious effects of this sensibility, including the state’s use of it for coercive ends. This trend has clearly spread and worsened over time, and, as Frank Furedi notes, we now live in a full-blown ‘therapy culture’ in which people are assumed to be inherently vulnerable, and every sphere of life has become subject to a new emotional correctness.
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