The Coddling of the American Mind
I interrupt my regularly scheduled programming to bring this report on my reading of The Coddling of the American Mind. I'm still reading Cynical Theories. I swear. Or at least that is what I tell myself. It's rough. It's heavy. It's hard. I still think it's important but boy howdy is reading that book a lot of work. I didn't read TCOTAM, I listened to the audiobook. As such, I didn't take notes, except mentally. But I thought it was such a fantastic book that it warranted a blog post, even though it will be less extensive without the notes and without being able to easily leaf back through a chapter. As a reminder, these blog posts are mostly for me, an exercise in processing and remembering the things I read. And listen to, I guess. The authors of The Coddling of the American Mind assert that three great untruths have become widely accepted and even promoted, albeit unintentionally. These untruths teach thinking patterns that harm mental health, relatio