that’s the topic my bloomberg columnhere is one excerpt.
One study Researchers in Ethiopia investigated the psychological effects of increasing aspirations. Researchers created a randomized controlled trial in which a group of people were shown a short film about business and entrepreneurial success in their community. Six months later, those who watched the movie worked more, saved more, and invested more in education than those who didn’t watch the movie. Even after five years, households that watched the movie accumulated more wealth and their children received 0.43 more years of education on average. This is usually considered an amazing effect.
Not all results are so positive.
Psychological interventions may have only temporary effects.a study design Taught women in India lessons in self-efficacy. In the short term her chances of employment rose by 32%, but that effect disappeared within a year…
None of these results prove that there is a „psychology of poverty“ that can be overcome by external intervention. But they suggest that even economically poor countries can reap modest benefits by investing in what is called psychological and psychotherapeutic infrastructure. Although these study designs can be applied to hundreds or thousands of people, they are by no means easy to use on an entire population. Nevertheless, countries can make treatment support more accessible and affordable, and foster a culture where people feel comfortable seeking it.
Are we reaching a threshold in the Western world where further counseling and therapy becomes of zero or negative value? Perhaps the only options are either too little or too much of a particular kind of introspection.