Therapeutic Culture Is a Luxury Belief: Why Young People Are Struggling
City Journal Audio
Manhattan Institute
4.7 • 657 Ratings
🗓️ 17 October 2025
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Why are so many young people struggling with mental health? Abigail Shrier, Rob Henderson, and Brian Anderson explore the roots of the crisis and examine the roles played by mental health professionals, shifting parenting styles, the influence of schools, and social media. Their conversation underscores the value of authoritative parenting, the importance of setting high expectations, and the need for parents to take a more active role in their children's development within a culture increasingly shaped by therapeutic narratives.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to this special episode of the City Journal podcast. |
| 0:12.8 | I'm Brian Anderson, the editor of City Journal. |
| 0:15.3 | And I'm joined by two of my remarkable colleagues, Rob Henderson and Abigail Shrier. |
| 0:22.3 | There are also two of the sanest voices in the contemporary intellectual landscape. |
| 0:27.6 | Rob's the author of Troubled, a memoir of foster care, family, and social class, |
| 0:33.4 | which is a moving account of his journey from foster care to Yale and Cambridge by way of the U.S. military |
| 0:41.9 | and what it reveals about resilience and belonging. |
| 0:45.6 | Abigail has sparked a national debate with a recent bestseller, bad therapy, |
| 0:50.7 | why the kids aren't growing up, which argues that America's therapeutic culture is leaving |
| 0:56.2 | young people more fragile, not resilient. Before we dive into today's conversation, which will |
| 1:03.9 | explore that theme and others, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast, so you never miss, you know, future episodes. |
| 1:12.5 | And I should announce that we now have a substack with extra content going beyond what's on our |
| 1:19.2 | regular website and physical magazine. It's at Cj.mag..J.mag.mag.com. So let's get started with the big question, which is the youth mental health crisis. I just saw on X today the results of a presidential election survey from last year in which 72% of the |
| 1:50.5 | female Gen Z respondents said that mental illness was a key part of their identity. |
| 1:57.0 | And the young men were at 67%. So it was just as, I mean, it seemed to me like an outlier poll, but there's lots of other evidence that something similar is going on. I've seen other evidence that 40% of young people have had some kind of mental health issue. You know, one out of five kids has had a serious depressive incident. |
| 2:21.1 | You know, they're handing out antidepressants like candy to young people. So, you know, Abigail, |
| 2:27.7 | this is really something you've looked at closely in your book. How serious is this problem in your |
| 2:33.8 | view? And, you know, what's the biggest driver? |
| 2:38.0 | Well, it's a serious problem. |
| 2:40.5 | It's a problem of our making. |
| 2:42.0 | And that's sort of the tragedy of it. |
| 2:43.6 | We allowed mental health experts to create the problem of a mental health crisis in young people. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Manhattan Institute, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Manhattan Institute and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.