Healing Ourselves to Death

Drowning in self-help & the return of Christianity

First, we wanted work-life balance. Then came the great resignation: Young professionals across industries quit their jobs to focus on self-actualization. Self-help blogs exploded. Mental health awareness skyrocketed. Self-care content spread like a virus. Yet, despite all this, we’re more anxious, idolatrous, and directionless than ever. Healing, in the modern self-help context, may just be our next harmful passion.

Psychoanalysis, following religion, was the first school of thought to suggest that we aren’t masters of our own houses; rather than being the pilots in the cockpit, we’re like marionettes dangling on strings. The perceived ‘self’ is an amalgamation shaped by quasi-independent personalities influenced by genetics, upbringing, memories, and trauma. Much of our behavior is driven by animalistic passions and irrepressible emotions.

And I think that’s what we hate: We hate not being the boss of our own heads. We hate not being in control. The puppet wishes to overpower the stri…