{"product_id":"in-therapy-we-trust-americas-obsession-with-selffulfillment-9780801864032","title":"In Therapy We Trust: America's Obsession with Self-Fulfillment","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrom self-esteem talk on Oprah to self-help 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 well-being. 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 self-esteem. 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 self-fulfillment? Has America gained or lost by placing so much emphasis on personal well-being? Taking a historical approach  Moskowitz explores the countrys tendency to find psychological explanationsand excusesfor nearly everything. Beginning with the example of a \"Mind Cure\" developed by mid-nineteenth-century 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. Depression-era divorce rates prompted colleges and high schools to offer courses on marital happiness and produced a new marriage-counseling industry. During World War II  Moskowitz shows  the army devoted unprecedented energy to a soldiers \"psychological readiness for combat.\" Moskowitz also explores more recent developments  including Cold War-era psychological assumptions of magazine campaigns that targeted unhappy housewives. She confronts the social protest movements in the 60s and the explosion of 70s self-help 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45651955515445,"sku":"ByrdShop_0801864038","price":43.3,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780801864032.jpg?v=1781847399","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/in-therapy-we-trust-americas-obsession-with-selffulfillment-9780801864032","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}