ABSTRACT
Our popular and therapeutic culture is permeated with reports and ideas about the importance of subjective emotional experience. Posttraumatic distress is but one example ofthe broader interest in emotions and emotional problems. This focus on subjectivity is seen in everything from the popularity of television talk shows that pursue highly emotional subjects to the proliferation of self-help groups. It is also reflected in the rise of intellectual movements such as deconstructionism/postmodernism in which the idea of objective truths is considered with disdain and individualized interpretations of the world are regarded as more important. Television programs earn their Nielson points to the extent that they are able to mobilize viewer emotions. Newscasts always ask how people feel about unusual events.
