Two Things 3/18/24
Bad Therapy. Inadequacy of "Christian worldview"? Plus military ethics, Cabrini, and biblical archaeology.
Coffee this Friday at the usual time (6:30 am) and place (Loyal North).
(1) The kids are not all right: I’m in the middle of Abigail Shrier’s latest book Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren’t Growing Up, already an Amazon and NYT bestseller. The book is a witty and insightful exercise in sacred-cow-tipping. Shrier criticizes the rise of therapy, “trauma-informed” everything, “gentle parenting,” over-reliance on psychotropic medication, and much more. Her ultimate target is the growing industry of mental health professionals and therapists—an industry now starting to attract venture capital (not kidding). Martha Dunson has this review at American Reformer:
Shrier argues that therapy can often introduce iatrogenesis (i.e. treatment itself creates harm). Therapeutic interventions also undermine parental authority, fracturing countless family relationships, and create anxious, needy children who grow to adulthood unable to cope with basic life problems. Shrier recounts interviews with psychologists, therapists, school counselors, parents and children, and provides academic studies, school survey results, and more for overwhelming evidentiary support. And the evidence is powerful. Shrier surmises that individual therapy has very little proven benefit for kids, and rather sows self-doubt among parents and an over-reliance on “experts.” Bad Therapy is the slap in the face needed to wake parents up so that they will course correct.
…
[A] theme repeated throughout the book [is that] kids don’t need to be coddled; they need to have the freedom to fail, make mistakes, or do hard things and then to learn from their experiences. Hard times, difficult experiences, and risk, all tend to make people more resilient….
One of the more insightful critiques in Bad Therapy is that resilience—not “trauma”—is the norm for most people, especially kids. But the therapy industry has kneecapped the natural human tendency toward resilience by insisting that kids dwell on negative experiences and transitory emotions. Not coincidentally, there’s financial self-interest at play here, too. Therapists get paid to have patients, not to not have patients.
(2) What’s wrong with a Christian worldview? Well, Carl Trueman doesn’t like the term. In a recent conversation with John Stonestreet on the BreakPoint podcast, he explains why:
I’m open to the possibility that the differences between us may be more terminological than substantial…. These would be my two “beefs” with the terminology.
One of them is [that] Christian worldview language can claim too much.... When I hear talk of Christian worldview, it is typically singular and that perturbs me…. [A]cross the small-o orthodox Christian spectrum, … there are significant differences of theological opinion [such as differences among Christian traditions on the reality and significance of the Eucharist: purely symbolic vs. spiritual presence vs. real presence vs. mystical presence]. [These differences] rest on how you think about the world, how you think about bodies, how you think about the Incarnation…. I’d be more comfortable … with talk about Christian worldviews.... If we’re going to talk about Christian worldview, we’re really going to end up with a fairly insubstantial and narrow take on Christianity relative to the world around us.
The second concern [is that] Christian worldview claims too little in the sense that it really does, I think, prioritize ... the cognitive, intellectual aspects of the faith.... Much of the way we relate to the world is intuitive, and intuitions are not just shaped by arguments. They’re actually shaped by other things: social practices [and art and culture].… [These] feed into the way we think about the world. And that has led me to think that Christian apologetics ... or the formation of Christian discipleship has to be more than argument. The liturgy is important, what we sing is important, how we relate to each other is important.… My fear is that by overemphasizing the cerebral, we miss some of the most powerful forces in society shaping the way we think....
I also think we can end up overburdening ourselves.… For me, the best argument for traditional marriage is a traditional marriage. One of the reasons why my wife and I love to open our home and have students in for hospitality [is that] I want their imaginations to be gripped by what they see and what they experience. I think, as a teacher, those open houses are as influential on the way they behave and think about the world as any argument I give them in class.
Other Things:
My friend Phil Dolitsky argues for Providence that military ethics must account for both the “seen” and “unseen” consequences of a given action across all groups. Case in point: Israel vs. Hamas.
Cabrini, Angel Studios’ biopic on the first American to be canonized, is the inspiring story of an indomitable Christian woman and her commitment to the poor. But the movie downplays the deep faith that drove and sustained her.
Biblical archaeology round-up: 2,500-year-old silver coin is one of the oldest ever found. Galilean hike yields up 2,800-year-old Assyrian scarab. 3,000-year-old earring confirms Bible’s account of Phoenician presence in Jerusalem.
Hope to see you Friday.