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

Constructing the Self, Constructing America is an excellent expose on the formation of modern psychotherapy. Cushman situates modern psychotherapy in its larger social-cultural history in order to show that 1. Psychotherapy is an evolving cultural artifact. As such, modern psychotherapy is far from being the platonic form of mind-science which many of its practitioners wish it to be. 2. Cushman argues that psychotherapy's view of the self, disease and healing has produced an "empty self" which has intensified the problems that psychotherapy has sought to solve. 3. Cushman believes that psychotherapy has inadvertently helped produce the consumerism (with all of is problems) one sees at the beginning of the 21st century. The book is easy to read. Cushman's sketches of people and movements keep the book interesting.

Cushman has constructed a masterpiece. It is at once a history of therapy and a history of the American self. It is a deep history, a profound social history that demands thoughtful attention when reading. It's a work that lingers in your thoughts long after. I recommend this to students of history and sociology, and particularly for counselors and psychotherapists (of which I'm one), for it gives the long view and historical context for the practice and its competing ideas over the last century and a half.

I wish everyone in America would read this book. Although I found myself arguing with Cushman at times, it is the best book about America I have read in years. It put into words a great deal of my own frustrations and uneasiness regarding the direction of U.S. society, and the difficulty we have relating to each other, and the lack of interpersonal cooperation. My least favorite parts were the anecdotes toward the end where he recounts cases of various patients. I thought he stretched these a bit in order to support his argument and that the level of personal detail was excessive. Occasionally it seemed like unnecessary, voyeuristic prying into someone else's trauma. However, as far as the whole book is concerned -- I have not highlighted so much text or scribbled so many comments in the margins of a book in 20 years. I still give this book five stars and wholeheartedly recommend it.

This is a fun and informative description of how history and psychology have influenced each other, resulting in a sense of self that shapes and is shaped by our culture. Many psychological approaches end up in navel gazing introversion. Cushman dispenses with these and paints a clear picture of history and psychology dancing together in an embrace that allows the self to be both a cultural artifact and a culture shaper. Ideas can change the world and Cushman's book is full of ideas that have changed history, for better or for worse. The combination of academic rigor, interesting anecdotal evidence and plain funny material are rare in a single volume. If you are tired of the standard psychological introspection, try this one for a refreshing perspective on the dynamics of history, culture and the self.

This was required reading for a grad class (MA 2010) A well written well thought out synopsis of culture, custom, and class in America, particularly considering the idea of the "melting pot" and its many ramifications. Most interesting was the insight into assimilation and its different ways of playing out based on one's race and ethnicity, notwithstanding America's history of slavery. In addition, perhaps a little more emphasis could have been placed on "white privilege" and "male privilege", but one must consider the source. Clearly, how one sees oneself in America is unlike that view in any other country.

This book looks at American cultural history since the Civil War through the prism of historical changes in the field of psychotherapy--and at the same time puts psychotherapy in a historical context. It's simply the best cultural history of the US I've ever read. It traces the threads--primarily unbridled capitalism, rugged individualism, and the decline of the family and community--that have left us with the "empty self" which so many suffer from today. That is, a self that is depressed, anxious, psychosomatic, addicted--desperate to be filled up, by consumer goods, by peak experiences, by celebrity, by psychotherapy--without recognizing how much of our suffering comes from social change.

Well wrote!

This book changed my perspective on the field of psychology as well as how I understand and think about the self in America. It is by far one of the most valuable texts a psychologist, therapist, sociologist, etc. can read.