Therapy has made Harry a peevish, petulant prince

RUDYARD magnificent Kipling's poem If is a tribute to the virtue R of stoicism, long seen as a traditional part of the British character. 

- Leo McKinstry

But sadly the stiff upper lip is beginning to disappear from our national life, replaced by the glorification of emotional incontinence and self-pity.

A key element of that change is the fashionable obsession with mental health, where people are continually encouraged to talk about their feelings and seek help over any experiences that distress them.

Driven by the assertion that openness is better than restraint, Britain is increasingly following the example of the US in the creation of a vast therapeutic and counselling industry, headed by professionals with a vested interest in whipping up fears about a mental health crisis, claiming the solution lies in their dialogue with clients.

Across much of the Western world, belief in therapy has become a kind of quasireligious faith. Trained psychological experts are the new secular priesthood, able to wash away our troubles through a series of confessionals.

But there is little hard evidence that this approach works.

Far from building a more contented society, the relentless focus on mental health seems to worsen unhappiness.

THE World Health says 35 to Organisation 50 per cent of people in the West suffer from depression and anxiety. Tellingly, in institutions such as universities, which trumpet their devotion to this cause, the problem is worse.