A study of eight victims of trauma prompts a psychiatrist to ask to what extent we should put faith in psychological antidotes to mental suffering.

There seems to be a curious paradox in life today: the more concerned we are about mental distress in society, and the more sympathetic we are to it, the more of it there seems to be, notwithstanding any improvement in material conditions. Perhaps this increase in distress is merely the result of awareness of what was previously hidden or not spoken of; but perhaps also the attention given to such distress actually helps to create it. The demand creates its own supply, so to speak; and the dog of misery forever chases its tail of therapy.

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