Top Highlights

• psychological suffering is a basic characteristic of human life.
• People not only suffer, they inflict suffering in the form of bias, prejudice, and stigma in a way that seems as natural as breathing.
• Western civilization virtually worships freedom from physical or mental distress.
• Distressing thoughts, feelings, memories, or physical sensations came to be viewed predominantly as “symptoms.”
• A syndrome focus has led us to develop treatment approaches that overemphasize symptom reduction and downplay functional and positive markers of psychological health.