You know, normally I would be happy to write this take but the scariest part is that it isn't a status symbolDear Gus, could you please write us an essay (doesn't have to be a long one) about the extent to which attending psychotherapy is a status symbol among the contemporary American middle class?
Then tell us why not!You know, normally I would be happy to write this take but the scariest part is that it isn't a status symbol
You know, normally I would be happy to write this take but the scariest part is that it isn't a status symbol
It's a status symbol over there then?
I get the impression some Americans view it the way some South Koreans allegedly view cosmetic surgery, that it's a sign of arrogance or some sort of moral failing if you aren't doing it because, in their eyes, you're implying you have nothing to 'work on'.
Seen discussions online around women asking whether a guy's in therapy and it being a 'red flag' if they aren't.
Yeah, I don't mean in the same sense as buying a flash car, but it's a class signifier. The done thing within that milieu. You go to work, you go to the gym, you go to therapy, you go to a gallery opening, etc. I imagine it becomes a topic of conversation too. You talk about progress you've made and show your peers how you're improving.
Therapy as status tic is real, and I think it's mostly tied to a certain kind of milleu—upper class, neurotic, and very young. There's a sort of code to being faux-vulnerable as a way to establish being "real"—like a youth pastor who really wants everyone to know how much of a sinner he was.
The key is that one can only be vulnerable about things they're not genuinely vulnerable about; there's a sort of need to be blasè about horrible things; this all acts as a testament to legitimacy, which of course connects us back to how therapy as clout is a deep descendent of identity politics as status game.
(If this all sounds implausible and possibly comic—someone I met at a party a year or two back was later revealed to be a race faker—this person had spent seven years pretending to be half japanese, which raised interesting ontological questions about their concurrent claim to be nonbinary.)
Well at least now we can be sure he isn't my altI said it was several months ago and your boy agreed with me, so...
Then tell us why not!
literally 100% of americans i know are on some kind of regular psychoactive medication (idk the terminology but like adderal, antidepressents, whatever category of thing xanex is). one feature of being here is that people behave weirdly coz they're all on some kind of pharmaceutical. like how part of england's character is that when you speak to some rando there's a decent chance that they're drunk or hungover.When I moved to New York from small town California one of the most striking things was that every girl I knew was either prescribed antidepressants + benzos, or else abused xannies recreationally. Often with copious drinking. If you know anything about drug combinations, these do not mix well. Frequent blackouts, reckless decision-making, unprotected sex. These were often the same girls that wanted to be hit and choked during their anonymous Tinder hookups. I found it really bleak and sad. They didn't know what they wanted; they didn't understand the structure of their desires; they found themselves constantly slipping into gender roles that bred self-contempt; they found themselves subsidizing behaviors that hurt them, etc.
You know me, but yesliterally 100% of americans i know are on some kind of regular psychoactive medication
i did not know that. coz obviously everyone i know is coastal. that is a surprise but makes sense.You know me, but yes
It's definitely an urban coastal liberal thing though. In the entirety of rural Wisconsin there's one bored housewife with an alcoholic husband who secretly takes SSRIs and when it comes up everyone's curious and asks her questions like, "Why are you taking this?"
i did not know that. coz obviously everyone i know is coastal. that is a surprise but makes sense.
It seems like a status symbol over there, part of the self-improvement racket. You go to the gym, you go to therapy. You let other people know you go to the gym, you go to therapy.