In his City Journal column, Dr. Dalrymple examines the rise in importance of psychology in tandem with the increase in mental problems related to the many ills of post-war modernity in the West.

Unknowingly, though, we were at the onset of what one might call the therapeutic turn. The dissatisfactions of life, rather than being understood as the inherent imperfectability of sublunary existence, came to be viewed as psychological, or even psychiatric, problems—with psychological or psychiatric solutions.

On behalf of the team here at The Skeptical Doctor, I would like to wish all of our readers around the world a peaceful, joyous, and blessed Christmas.