IN THERAPY WE TRUST: America's Obsession with Self-Fulfillment.

• Author: Torrey, E. Fuller
• Position: Brief Article

IF YOU ARE INTO EUPHORIMETERS, this book is for you. The Euphorimeter was developed in the 1930s by researchers at Duke University as a test of marriage compatibility for those seeking a mate. The person's level of happiness was measured in "Euphor" units, and the Euphorimeter's purpose was to select a mate with a similar level of such units. The test even promised to locate "the aspect of the personality from which unhappiness arises."

In Therapy. We Trust is full of interesting aspects of what the author calls "the therapeutic gospel." For example, in California there are Pet Loss Support Groups, which, in one instance recounted by the author, helped a man come to terms with the death of Fred, his pet boa constrictor. Outside of his support group, the man said, "no one understood what Fred had meant to me." Conversely, if your pet becomes depressed, you can give it Prozac, which now comes as a tablet shaped like a fish especially for cats.

Eva Moskowitz, an historian, has mined popular literature of the late 19th and 20th centuries to document how "Americans developed an intense preoccupation with psychological well-being" so that "today this obsession knows no bounds." She claims that "there are more than 260 [different kinds of] 12-step programs in America ... No other nation in the world puts so much faith in emotional well-being and self-help techniques." Happiness has become an obsession, and "the therapeutic gospel" preaches that "the psychological problems that underlie our failures and unhappiness are in fact treatable and that we can, indeed should, address these problems both individually and as a society." Flourish of trumpets; enter Oprah Winfrey and Ricki Lake.

The author is at her best in documenting America's increasing obsession with its own happiness. From Phineas P. Quimby and the New Thoughters of the 19th century, she resurrects a series of characters, many now almost forgotten, who played crucial roles. There is Paul Popenoe, who started the first "marriage clinics," and Ernest Groves, who introduced marriage counseling into college curriculums. From more recent times, Moskowitz describes mainstream happiness addicts, like Richard Price and Michael Murphy, who founded the Esalen Institute, as well as oddballs such as Arthur Janov ("primal scream therapy") and Jack Rosenberg, aka Werner Erhard. One of the most interesting sections of the book is the author's account of the rise of TV talk shows focusing on...