Scott’s December No Mercy / No Malice post, “The Cult of Therapy,” argued that therapy has been oversold as a cultural cure-all. In this Deep Dive, he tests that argument with Dr. Jonathan Shedler, a clinical psychologist and researcher best known for his work on the effectiveness of psychodynamic therapy.
Dr. Shedler agrees with much of the critique, and goes further: most people who believe they’re in therapy, he argues, aren’t getting the kind of treatment that produces lasting change. They discuss when therapy is warranted, why economic suffering often isn’t a psychotherapy problem, what the gender imbalance among providers means for men, and why AI can’t substitute for a human therapist.
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