Therapy culture? Attitudes towards emotional support in Britain 159

interact with one another; the gap between men and women is at its greatest
among the two youngest age groups. So while 23 per cent of young men aged
18–24 fall into our most talkative group, so too do 49 per cent of young women.
One possible interpretation of this is that young men become more comfortable
with emotions talk as they enter into long-term intimate relationships, whereas
young women have often developed relationships of emotional inter-
dependence with female friends before establishing such longer-term ties.
As with gender and age, a number of other characteristics are independently
associated with belonging to the ‘most talkative’ group, suggesting that if any
shift towards a therapeutic culture is taking place, it is less powerful than Furedi
and others have implied. There is, for example, an education effect, with
graduates being significantly more likely than non-graduates to belong to the
most talkative group.
Attitudes towards talking about emotions also vary according to subjective
well-being
1
and past experience of mental health difficulties. Reassuringly,
perhaps, for proponents of emotion talk, those with high levels of well-being are
more likely than average to be in the most talkative camp, and those with low
levels are the most likely to be in the least talkative group (nearly half fall into
this category). Interestingly, however, those with experience of serious mental
health difficulties are relatively more likely to have a positive orientation
towards emotions talk. One possible explanation of this might be that their
attitudes have been shaped by the experience of formal, talk-based treatment.
Attitudes towards therapy and counselling
One might expect another feature of an emergent therapeutic culture to be a
widespread sense of familiarity with the idea of counselling or therapy, and a
sense that individuals would feel comfortable engaging with this type of formal
emotional support. But as Table 7.3 shows, this does not appear to be the case.
The table shows responses to a set of questions about counselling or therapy.
These were introduced to respondents as follows:

Sometimes when people are feeling especially worried, stressed or
down, they choose to talk about it to someone who is trained to help
or to listen. Here are some things people say about that.
If I was feeling worried, stressed or down I’d feel comfortable talking
to my GP about it
If I was feeling worried, stressed or down I’d feel comfortable talking
to a therapist or counsellor about it
I’d know how to go about finding a counsellor or therapist if I needed
to
Counselling or therapy is only for people with really serious problems
I don’t really know anything about counselling or therapy
If I had seen a counsellor or therapist, I wouldn’t want anyone to
know about it
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