It’s no longer about mental illness— today people want to access their best selves
More people than ever are accessing therapy. Why? Are we more stressed than our and grandparents were? Have we failed to develop the bitachon that’s needed for a sense of well-being? Or are we just self-indulgent people looking for attention?
The answer to those questions is no, no, and no! We have the same faith and fears people have always had. What we also have is modern psychology. Modern psychology isn’t the same as the psychology of yesteryear — yesteryear being as recent as 2010. The very word “psychology” was, a few decades ago, suspect. Alien philosophies colored its nature and techniques. Practitioners embedded in secular ideologies led our people away from cherished values, beliefs and practices. Psychology posed a spiritual threat even as it purported to heal mental and emotional functioning.
People accessed psychologists and psychiatrists only for the purposes of treating mental illness. Mental illnesses, which still plague many people today, are brain diseases that interrupt normal, healthy functioning. The only people who sought professional help were those who were seriously incapacitated by mental disorders. This gave psychology a stigma, negatively impacting shidduchim and shaming those who “needed” it. Those who sought treatment found themselves painted with the same brush as psychotic patients languishing in locked-door facilities.
All this has dramatically changed. Even those suffering from mental illnesses receive outpatient medical treatment that frequently provides stabilization. But more commonly, it’s not serious illness that prompts people to access psychological services. Clients (not “patients”) are seeking an improved quality of life, and a higher level of emotional, intellectual, interpersonal, and physical well-being.
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