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

Jonathan Haidt, Greg Lukianoff — 2018

'Excellent, their advice is sound . . . liberal parents, in particular, should read it' Financial Times The New York Times bestseller 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.

Reviews

Mark Phillips@mp

Oct 30, 2022

As with many good books written by academics, the topic is well flushed out with justifying reasons — but could probably be written as a long form newspaper/magazine article. It didn't really need a whole book. Don't take that as too much of a negative, it's still a worthwhile read.

Colin Das@clocs

Aug 13, 2022

For: (1) parents, regarding your impact on children's independence, immunity, and interactions with smart phones. (2) humans concerned with social and political tension. My dad said the book was "an eye opener".

jack morris@jxm

Jul 9, 2022

A friend recommended this to me a year or so ago and I finally got around to reading it. The overall message was interesting: American colleges have a free speech crisis that stems from the overprotection of American youth. I liked how the author provided psychologically theories for the phenomena he described (decrease in kids' free play, increased rates of anxiety and depression, etc.) but as a whole, I didn't really buy it. The stories about riots and protests at different colleges (I didn't know most of them) were crazy. I thought "The Coddling" gave me good context for modern-day political discussions, but I felt slightly pandered to along the way. The author has some good habits that make the book easier to read, like reminding you of the position you're in in the book, summarizing chapters, and providing pithy little aphorisms to make the message of each chapter more memorable. However, he went to such great lengths to put the content in context that it turned a little condescending.

KADY BURNS@kburns

Feb 8, 2022

Although it was a little padded for length, this book is absolutely a must read! So very insightful to events that are happening now. I plan on reading some of their suggestions and "preparing my children for the road, not the road for my children".

Faheem Kajee@faheem

Aug 16, 2021

We need to embrace more antifragility

Ilia Markov@ilia

Aug 1, 2021

I'm a bit hesitant on this book—I definitely liked and I think the issue the authors discuss is really important. On the other hand, I don't agree with the absolutism about freedom of speech. Giving freedom to ideas and people who would not think twice before taking away the same freedom and destroy those who fight for it (such as fascists) is naive.