'Excellent, their advice is sound . . . liberal parents, in particular, should read it' Financial Times
The New York Times bestseller
Financial Times, TLS, Evening Standard, New Statesman books of the year
What doesn't kill you makes you weaker
Always trust your feelings
Life is a battle between good people and evil people
These three Great Untruths contradict basic psychological principles about well-being, as well as ancient wisdom from many cultures. And yet they have become increasingly woven into education, culminating in a stifling culture of "safetyism" that began on American college campuses and is spreading throughout academic institutions in the English-speaking world.
In this book, free speech campaigner Greg Lukianoff and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt investigate six trends that caused the spread of these untruths, from the decline of unsupervised play to the corporatization of universities and the rise of new ideas about identity and justice.
Lukianoff and Haidt argue that well-intended but misguided attempts to protect young people can hamper their development, with devastating consequences for them, for the educational system and for democracy itself.
The culture of entitlement to protection from opposing ideas at US colleges is analysed in terms of its effects on the broader cultural climate, and on the development of infantile adults unprepared for a post-college experience. *Also appeared in July Buyer's Notes*
