In Partial Grudging Defense Of Some Aspects Of Therapy Culture

A short, sharp partial defense of the 'therapy culture' Scott had been mocking (the 'find your true self' framework). The wedge is a coinage: 'preference alexithymia.' Just as alexithymics aren't in touch with their emotions, some people aren't in touch with their preferences -- like the friend who until their teens didn't know they had food preferences, defaulting to whatever was high-status or wouldn't anger anyone (and, not coincidentally, was very thin and skipped meals). For such a person, therapy's 'discover your true self' really means the concrete and real 'learn to access your preferences the way non-alexithymics do by default' -- which could explain someone realizing their high-status marriage is to a person they don't actually prefer. Scott grants this while preserving the failure mode (preferences aren't always sitting there waiting; an authority-figure therapist can convince an already-self-aware person there's a Truer Self to chase that isn't there -- the 'sometimes people without ADHD take Adderall' caveat), and ties it back to the polyamory-memoir writer who maybe needed better therapy, not less.

Quality 67 · Strong. Strong floor. Brief but lands a genuinely useful concept ('preference alexithymia') that reframes a debate Scott had been on one side of; docked for being short and lightly developed.

Claude’s paradigm shift 48 · Moderate. Moderate. The 'preference alexithymia' coinage and its application to the true-self/therapy debate is a fresh, useful handle.

Real-world impact 1 · Negligible. Negligible. A short conceptual essay with no material reach. 1.