Share this comment
That's a good way of putting it. And I worry that you've identified a meta-problem. We're great at optimizing, and optimizing at scale. So when we find something that appears to work we go all in on it. (A phenomenon I touched on here: wearenotsaved.com/p/esc…)
We decided that therapy was good and suddenly it's ubiquitous, and as you say …
That's a good way of putting it. And I worry that you've identified a meta-problem. We're great at optimizing, and optimizing at scale. So when we find something that appears to work we go all in on it. (A phenomenon I touched on here: https://www.wearenotsaved.com/p/eschatologist-3-turning-the-knobs-of-society)
We decided that therapy was good and suddenly it's ubiquitous, and as you say it hardly matters whether the child in question is reckless or timid. When things were less scaled up, and less ubiquitous parents had greater latitude and greater responsibility to do this sort of thing. And they could probably tailor the warnings and the like with more finesse.
The problem is, that when you get a kid that really does need dedicated professional help and special techniques (EMDR, CBT) a parent is not as good. So you get a situation where for the average child things probably got worse, and for the children who were really bad off things got better.