How did people used to live without psychologists and why are psychologists needed now? Recently, in one group on social media. The maternity network saw a post from a girl who complained of postpartum depression and asked to recommend a psychotherapist. I went into the comments and what do you think I saw there? The first comment was in the spirit (not literally): how gentle everyone has become, everyone is depressed, before there were no psychologists and everyone lived well and there was no depression, these depressions are yours from laziness. Well, there were quite a lot of comments in a similar spirit. Why some people write something like this under posts asking for help is a topic for a separate post. And now I want to speculate on the topic of why people used to live without psychologists and why now psychological counseling and psychotherapy is gaining more and more popularity. So, I’ll highlight a few important points. - before, for example, about 200 years ago, life for ordinary people in the village was physically much more harder than the life of a modern urban person, but emotionally, probably easier. I can assume that people made fewer demands on themselves and others. For example, no one demanded from a mother who had recently given birth to urgent self-development, to get in shape as quickly as possible after childbirth (otherwise she would find a younger husband), no one demanded to be a wonderful, conscious mother, so as not to injure her child. Now many mothers demand this from themselves, and social pressure is not far behind. People's demands on their spouses were also lower. This provokes comparison of oneself with other people, often not in one’s favor, a race for successful success, which leads to constant anxiety, tension, neuroticism at a minimum. - Previously, in villages people lived more unitedly, everyone knew each other, there were common customs and traditions . People felt less lonely and, most likely, in case of a difficult situation they could turn to their fellow villagers for help. Now society is more divided, people often do not know the names of their neighbors on the floor, many live far from relatives and friends. Of course, communication via the Internet partly compensates for the lack of communication and close people nearby, but not completely. - Previously, the role of psychologists was partly performed by clergy, and faith also provided support in difficult times. - there used to be traditions that helped us live and express our emotions. For example, mourners at a funeral, singing folk songs. Nowadays such a culture is less developed. In addition, in modern society there is an attitude towards positivity and success; many people find it difficult to live and find support from loved ones, for example, in feelings of sadness, sadness, anger. What do you think? Why are psychologists needed more and more now??