"I've been observing the trends for a long time and I've noticed that in the last year the number of different diagnoses has multiplied (...) The more psychologists there are, the more sick people there are," Frank Furedi, director of MCC Brussels and author of "Therapy Culture", published in 2001, told Magyar Nemzet. In his statement, the professor identified the phenomenon of psychology displacing the role of religion and philosophy in society. Existential problems have thus been rebranded as psychological problems.
This is as big a problem as woke policy, and the right wing in Hungary does not yet fully understand its impact,
he noted.
According to the well-known sociologist, an over-psychologized society produces symptoms such as those in a child who has not yet developed self-confidence and is afraid or shy to speak in a group, and is subsequently stigmatized/diagnosed as suffering from "social phobia" (social anxiety disorder). Furedi believes that as a consequence, people are slowly losing their ability to live with and overcome problems.
The MCC Brussels director considers the new approach to be particularly dangerous for children. By over-helping, by shuttering out failures - which is what is happening in schools, when in many places in the West the dominant approach in education prevents the negative evaluation of students - we are providing our children a world in which they will not be able to stand on their own two feet because they have not been prepared for the challenges life brings.
He recalled that previously depression had been thought not to affect children. But by contrast, in the last forty years, especially in the Anglo-American world and in Northern Europe, increasing amounts of money are being spent on psychological therapies every year, he said, adding that this has been accompanied by a growing number of people who think they cannot live or work normally because they suffer from some form of depression.
My main point is that if we continue at this rate, with 40 percent of American children having been to a therapist, society will become so weak that it could lead to serious problems. I know many think that it's great that we can talk about our personal problems and not be as stoic as we used to be, but in fact people are becoming weaker and can't seriously work and behave. That's why young people in their twenties often still act childishly,
highlighted the professor, who believes young people are not to blame, as they inherited this mentality from their teachers and parents, who are guided by culture. "If the culture says that a good parent is someone who always smiles at the child, who doesn't yell at the child, who doesn't tell the child you did this wrong, then everyone will go in that direction," he explained.
Frank Furedi hopes that a debate on this new approach can still emerge in Hungary, because as he sees it, parents in Budapest are starting to behave increasingly more like parents in Western European societies. "They are afraid that their children will not like them if, for example, they are sent upstairs to their room," he said bluntly.
The "horrific" aspect of this, according to the head of the Brussels-based think-tank, is that no one involved in the process has ill intentions, with the exception perhaps of the industry that has capitalized on it.
Looking at the trend as a whole, he concluded that, although it is significant primarily for the liberal Left, the Right does not yet understand what is happening in this area.
Cover photo: Professor Frank Furedi, Director of MCC Brussels (Photo: MCC Brussels)
