Eric Morse's Reviews > The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure

This book addresses issues that are defining our age. That is nothing remarkable in itself, unless you realize that these issues and the perspectives shared in this book have become taboo in our identity-saturated culture. What the authors have done is spoken the unspeakable. In so doing, they have nobly spotted the dangers of political correctness, 'vindictive protectiveness', and 'safetyism', and provided a stark warning to educators and laymen alike.

Lukianoff and Haidt do not provide the most robust explanation of how we got here, preferring to remain local and focus on the psychological rather than sociological, political, economic, or philosophical. This is to their credit as non-partisan observers. But it does leave the reader hoping for more depth. It is telling that the authors do not mention Allan Bloom's masterpiece precursor to this work, which takes a broader philosophical view and more adequately explains the origins of our problems.

So too do the solutions provided leave much to be desired. Most are commonsensical and some are not practical. The intention is good, and they follow the argument, but they leave the reader wondering if there is something more.

Still, The Coddling provides a number of valuable insights. The open-eyed reader will be astonished at the richness of the psychological concepts that Lukianoff and Haidt infuse into their narrative: Concept Creep, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Institutionalized Disconfirmation, and Problems of Progress to name a few of the more fascinating ones. Combining these with the plentiful on-campus examples of coddling gone amok, the authors offer perhaps the best summary of our modern university problems to date.

Altogether, this book will serve well anyone who is bold enough to face the uncomfortable truth that we are setting up our future generations for depression and failure, and hopeful enough to do something about it.