Michael Estrin

Being "in therapy" has become a badge of honor. Mental health struggles have morphed into an identity. But that's not strength. We should celebrate emotional resilience, not broadcast pain for validation.

We live in an era where disagreement is treated like trauma, and emotional reactions are weaponized for political gain. On social media, vulnerability is currency. On TikTok, influencer "therapists" dish out instant validation in 30-second bursts. The most anxious voices often hold the most influence. Complex issues get reduced into content.... See more

In the United States, basic mental-health care remains a luxury item; there’s a reason that the most fluent speakers of the trending argot tend to be wealthy and white. This may explain some of the irritation that therapy-speak occasionally provokes: the words suggest a sort of woke posturing, a theatrical deference to norms of kindness, and they... See more

Therapy-speak, with its first-person narratives of pain, assumes a similar link between vulnerability and identity. Its confessional aspect doubles as an affirmation of humanness, which is always both empowered and frail.

Consider “holding space,” a standout in the new vernacular. The words often appear as a verb phrase, which the

Gender and Sexuality Therapy Center

defines as “putting your focus on someone to support them as they feel their feelings.”

n this context, even mental health can be another source of self-branding. Rather than healing, influencer mental health (#MentalHealth #Anxiety) can just as easily become about managing one’s image, curating one’s identity, and performing one’s struggles online.

And the field, intentionally or not, participates. Therapists build followings;... See more

oday’s ideal citizen, says philosopher Byung-Chul Han, is no longer the obedient worker, but the endlessly self-optimizing achiever. You’re free—so long as you keep improving, hustling, and “being your best self.”

Successful psychiatric or psychological therapies typically lead to remission and effective coping strategies rather than a complete cure. This type of therapy is vulnerable to becoming a loop: something’s wrong with you, we’re not quite sure what it is, but we’ll keep looking—and billing.