Bad Therapy

This provocative investigation into modern therapeutic culture argues that the mental health industry's overreach is actively harming young people rather than helping them. Shrier presents compelling evidence that Gen Z's declining psychological well-being correlates directly with increased therapy and mental health interventions, challenging the assumption that more professional support always equals better outcomes. She documents how overdiagnosis, excessive emotional monitoring, and therapeutic language have infiltrated parenting and education, creating what she terms a "therapeutic industrial complex" that pathologizes normal childhood struggles.

What makes this analysis particularly unsettling is how Shrier connects well-intentioned mental health practices to diminished resilience and increased anxiety in youth. Parents and educators wrestling with why today's children seem more fragile despite unprecedented psychological resources will find her arguments impossible to dismiss. The book serves as a crucial corrective to therapeutic overcorrection, suggesting that sometimes the most supportive thing adults can do is step back and let children develop natural coping mechanisms through ordinary childhood challenges.