I agree that there is an unhealthy rise in people's belief of entitlement, however, isn't expecting days free of "emotional pollution" also a form of an over-developed entitlement belief? I hate nothing more than people who take out thier bad moods on others and am all for promoting coping skills that prevent that kind of frequent displacement, but I also can give people the benefit of the doubt if they are rude to me. If a person cuts in front of me at the grocery store I can reason that he or she may be having a really bad day and I stop the spread of anger right there. Am I entitled to shopping trips that never involve rude people? That would be nice, but I don't feel entitled to that, only to going about my day in the best way possible and trying to do my part in giving off a positive vibe.

I have noticed over the years of going to different therapists on and off, something that I hope is just a trend in therapy. Maybe I'm just not understanding but something dosen't seem right to me.

Therapists seem to always side with the client because that is their job. That bothers me when they follow it up with saying that I did all I could and to let it go without probing more or encouraging communication and social skills. I feel as if I've led a life of entitlement by treating people as disposable because I of course was "entitled to better treatment". I've brought 2 boyfriends into therapy and felt that the therapist didn't even try to disagree with them. What I found out later while alone with my therapists was that they felt the boyfriends "just weren't getting it". I thought to myself, if that was me hearing her I wouldn't have gotten it either. Sometimes they are so gentle at suggesting and afraid to make someone defensive that it's just not helping. Even my ex at the time said he would have been happy if she would just have been more direct. Which leads me to wonder what am I not getting in therapy because they are too gentle with me. All I am hearing is how right I am, and entitled to better all the time, but no clue as to how to attain this elusive treatment from friends and family that they so often claim exists. This is very disturbing for me as it has isolated me from what little family I did have before several family members passed away.

The problem is we live in a dysfunctional world, and I am losing people more and more because while therapy is sending me this message that I have clarified over and over, it seems we don't tolerate anything anymore because we are entitled to better. But what if their is no better? What if therapists are just giving band-aids? Am I going to be entitled all the way up to my old age all by myself?

I was very happy to read your book Love Without Hurt because it went beyond the codependency stuff. I agree with much about codependency but sometimes think that we are becoming a society of individuals way too much.
I have seen a few of my friends, in therapy, take on the same attitude towards me. Not talking about things, just quietly pulling away. Now if I took that info to a new therapist they would agree that I was doing all I could do and to let it go. But I wonder now if we all got our therapists together, and they could hear both sides of the story would they be giving the same advice?

Excellent post, Steven. I decided to move to Costa Rica to get out of the extremely stressful environment in the U.S. Feeling stressed out is so much of a habit for many in the U.S. that it's hard to see how much the environment is polluted in that way until we leave the U.S. and feel life in a different place.

I've been in Costa Rica for more than two months, and the environment is far less stressful. Although some of those in the youngest generation seem to have a sense of entitlement, it is rare among the adult Costa Ricans I've met.