The Coddling of the American Mind

Your feelings are always right. You should avoid pain and discomfort. You should look for faults in others and not yourself. These three Great Untruths are part of a larger philosophy that sees young people as fragile creatures who must be protected and supervised by adults, resulting in a culture of safety that began on American college campuses and is spreading throughout academic institutions in the English-speaking world. In this book, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt and free speech campaigner Greg Lukianoff argue that increasing intolerance of opposing viewpoints is contributing to rising rates of depression and anxiety among young people and leaving many students unprepared for adult life, with devastating consequences for them, for their parents, for the companies that will soon hire them, and for democracies that are increasingly pushed to the brink of violence over growing political divisions. In tracing the origins of this phenomenon, Haidt and Lukianoff offer a comprehensive set of reforms that will strengthen both individuals and institutions, allowing us all to reap the benefits of diversity, including viewpoint diversity.