Has America traded its soul for its psyche? Has the quest for our inner selves replaced the quest for God? Would we rather feel good than be good? Has therapy replaced religion in our lives? These questions have been posed, and for the most part answered in the affirmative and with alarm, in what is now a long string of popular exposés and scholarly works dating back to Philip Rieff's 1966 classic, The Triumph of the Therapeutic. Early in the twentieth century, psychotherapy had been the preserve of the elite few who were cosmopolitan enough to want it and wealthy enough to pay for it. After World War II, however, it spread rapidly to the middle class, as popular media extolled its insights and thousands of new counselors made it affordable for many. As a result, by the end of the century we had become, according to one critique, “one nation under therapy.” Thoughtful observers have feared that the pervasiveness of this therapeutic outlook has had three intertwined and pernicious effects: It has corroded or corrupted religious faith, fostered ethical laxity, and weakened social bonds. If this is true, it threatens the vitality of our civil society; the cultural bedrock of our liberal democracy. But is it true?

I believe that these critics have not recognized the degree to which psychotherapeutic ideas and techniques changed as they were popularized. As psychology moved into the mainstream, the mainstream – with its considerable religiosity – moved into psychology.