Constructing the Self, Constructing America: A Cultural History of Psychotherapy

Abstract

This is an ambitious book. It seeks to describe manner in which concept of has been defined and experienced in various historical eras in America, to explain how psychotherapy contributed to this concept, and finally to criticize psychotherapy's contributions and argue that it needs to change direction. The author is not completely successful in all these endeavors, but he does succeed in producing an interesting, contentious, and clearly written book. Cushman, a historian and practicing psychologist, lays out his major themes and biases in his first two chapters, which can be summarized by following passages: over last 150 years, American history has become a history of modern ills of isolation, uncertainty and doubt; the current configuration of self is empty self... characterized by a pervasive sense of personal emptiness and... committed to value of self liberation through consumption; There seems little