NR | 1h 33m | Documentary | 2024
It’s a shame Tom Wolfe died in 2018, because the shrewd observer of generational zeitgeists could have offered some trenchant observations on Gen Z. Arguably, the age cohort born after 1996 needs some analysis, especially the psychological kind. Tragically, rates of teen depression, suicide, and self-harm spiked dramatically in 2012.
Co-authors Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt argue this trend is a direct consequence of the extremist political indoctrination that incoming students receive on college campuses. The authors’ goal is not to score polemical points. They truly want young people’s mental health to improve, as they explain in Ted Balaker’s documentary, “The Coddling of the American Mind,” based on their book.
Lukianoff and Haidt are never snarky or holier-than-thou. Instead, they strive for genuine empathy. To that end, Lukianoff forthrightly discusses his own struggles with suicidal depression. He’s now considered a leading defender of free speech on campuses as the president of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). Lukianoff openly credits the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) practices developed by Aaron Beck for saving his life.
The Study
The thesis Lukianoff developed in collaboration with Haidt is confirmed by the experiences of the film’s five major student perspectives. Three students fully embraced the groupthink mentality pushed by faculty and activists. Their resulting victim-centered worldviews mired them in misery and perhaps even clinical depression. Encouraged to see so-called “microaggressions” everywhere, they became increasingly resentful and paranoid.
In contrast, Saeed Malami (from Nigeria) initially participated in the group-think activism for social reasons, but his passion for free speech and Oxford-style intellectual debate led to a break with his activist “friends.” Likewise, he explains how his criticism of ideologically-charged diversity training led to his attempted cancelation. Although both endured flak from former associates on campus, they retained a healthy sense of self-respect that comes through during their interview segments.
Ideological Framework
Haidt explains how this ideological framework not only conflicts with the methodology of CBT, but also contradicts both the great Eastern and Western philosophical traditions. For instance, the Hellenistic Stoics counseled: “It’s not things that disturb us, but our interpretation of their significance.” This directly contradicts the implications of the second “Great Untruth.”
Given FIRE’s mission, it’s surprising that “The Coddling of the American Mind” also makes a lucid case for free speech on campus. It’s worth looking into Balaker’s previous documentary, “Can We Take a Joke,” which also featured Lukianoff. The film addressed how the objections of the hypersensitive were having a chilling effect on stand-up comedy.
Yet, “Coddling of the American Mind,” the film, the book, and the original magazine article it was based on, dig deeper to diagnosis the reasons Gen Z has grown so hostile to the values of free expression. Lukianoff and Haidt treat this activist mindset like a mental disorder, and they have good reason. Their other three primary case studies readily admit the debilitating depression they each experienced immediately started to lift once they began detoxing from the campus activism mindset.
It’s hard to “prove” outright a hypothesis like the one Lukianoff and Haidt present, but their logic is rigorously and consistently applied, their rhetoric is measured, and the student histories they cite compellingly support their case. Those examples also supply some optimism, demonstrating recovery is possible.
This is indeed a thoughtful film that resists scoring partisan points, even though the toxic campus dynamic it examines is undeniably a product of the far left. It would be a mistake to dismiss it as a polemic because the stakes for a generation suffering from unprecedented mental health issues are too high.
Much of Balaker’s documentary will feel like a revelation, even if you supported much of Lukianoff’s past free speech work at FIRE. Highly recommended.
