The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation For Failure

Greg Lukianoff & Jonathan Haidt | 2018
Posted in: Social Psychology
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First Amendment expert Greg Lukianoff and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt find the origins of today’s campus conflicts in the “Three Great Untruths” embraced by the current young generation: 1) What doesn’t kill you makes you weaker 2) Always trust your feelings; and 3) Life is a battle between good people and evil people. These Three Great Untruths contradict foundational psychological principles about well-being and ancient wisdom from many cultures.  Embracing these untruths interferes with learning and social connection.  The authors explore the intersecting trends that have brought these well-intentioned but misguided ideas into our culture, and how they connect to America’s ongoing political polarization and our alienation from one another.