UCSF Psychologist: “Nobody’s Upset or Irritated. They’re Traumatized.”
Scott Galloway talks with UCSF clinical psychologist Jonathan Shedler about how real psychotherapy differs from online "insta-therapy," why therapy is oversold as a cure-all, and why AI can't replace a human therapist.
The gist
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Galloway cites a study of the top 100 #ADHD TikTok videos: only 49% of claims checked out and none of the creators were licensed clinicians.
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Shedler says therapy fits when something inside you keeps blocking good advice, such as the same relationship problems repeating as a pattern.
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Shedler says problems caused purely by outside factors like lack of jobs are not therapy problems; therapy aims to change something about yourself.
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Shedler argues words like "traumatized" and "gaslighted" come from pop culture, not therapy, and work as clichés that avoid looking at personal specifics.
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Shedler says AI can't do therapy, because emotional change requires an attachment bond with another human, though the bond alone is not enough.
Made by someone on this episode
No Mercy, No Malice
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Also mentioned
0:36
Psychology Today
· "I got real pushback. Some of it even civil. Therapists wrote rebuttals, Psychology Today ran a response."
18:04
Jimmy Carr
· "Jimmy Carr pointed this out, the great kind of British comedian, that all right, we say anxious, do we..."
22:36
Insight-oriented therapy
· "It's a fundamental principle of what we could call insight-oriented or exploratory therapy or talk therapy..."
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