THIS TRAUMA CENTER THAT HELPS MILLENNIAL SNOWFLAKES ADJUST TO ADULT LIFE IS FASCINATING, HORRIFYING:
Thomas Szasz is not the hero we deserve, but the one we need right now.
That’s the implicit takeaway from Fusion‘s impressive profile of Yellowbrick, a mental health facility and trauma center for a certain kind of patient: relatively privileged millennials who can’t seem to adjust to the demands of adult life.
Based on my reading of the Fusion story, there doesn’t seem to be anything especially wrong with these people, in a medical sense—or, put another way, they’re suffering from the same kinds of fears, traumas, and stresses that plague practically everyone. But the patients have been convinced—scammed may be the better word—to believe that their struggles are diagnosable, treatable, and fixable. With the right therapy and medicine, and for the right price, 20-somethings who can’t hold jobs, finish school, or form lasting relationships will be transformed into fully functioning adults.
Did I mention that Yellowbrick costs $28,000 per month? There’s that. Patients must commit to stay at least 10 weeks, but many stay much longer—until their parents run out of money.
My father told me many tales of the Progressive transition center he attended as a young man in New Jersey, after a rather prominent Hawaiian safe space zone was rudely violated in December of 1941. The cost of tuition was much cheaper, its methods a bit rougher in those less enlightened days, but the end results were surprisingly impressive.