America on the couch : examining Freud's theories on American culture.

Christopher Cook journeys through the American id, discussing the influence of Freud and psychoanalysis on American culture. Sander Gilman says psychoanalysis builds on the existing American psychotherapeutic tradition which was rooted in American theology practice in Protestant churches. Psychoanalysis changed mental illness from the asylum to the middle-classes on the couch, and psychiatry became very remunerative. Hollywood liked psychoanalysis and new advertising exploited the theories. Dr Spock took it to the nurseries in the 1950s. New drugs, developed in the 1960s, have displaced ruminating on a couch.