Therapy Culture: Cultivating Vulnerability in an Uncertain Age by Frank Furedi. Published by  Routledge, London, 2004;  245 pp; £14.99 paperback.

Frank Furedi's latest book is a provocative critique of ‘therapeutic culture’ and its impact on modern society. From its outset we are introduced to the controversial claim that ‘therapeutic culture [rather than strengthening individuals] has helped construct a diminished sense of self that characteristically suffers from an emotional deficit and possesses a permanent consciousness of vulnerability’ (p. 22). Furedi is certain that this ‘inner vulnerability’ is not entirely inherent to the human condition, but that it is rather in part ‘therapeutically constructed’, a construct which diminishes individuals in so far as it renders them fearful of their susceptibility to emotional damage. Thus, in an ironic reversal of what most therapists believe, Furedi holds that therapeutic practice, rather than alleviating social and individual ills, is contributing to the weakening of self and society.

Furedi reaches these conclusions by studying therapy as a cultural phenomenon, rather than as a clinical technique, a phenomenon that has served to redefine many experiences that have ‘hitherto been interpreted as part of life’ as damaging to peoples' emotional and psychological stability. To support this argument Furedi draws upon the idea of ‘psychologization’