“The question is not whether there should be emotions, but how, when, and to what degree they should be expressed, and what part they should play in human life.”

As a therapist who works intimately with emotions — and is trained in modalities that use emotional processing as a foundation for healing — I often witness how misunderstood this territory can be.

In today’s culture, emotions are frequently idealized. There’s a prevailing belief that we should always express them, follow them, center our lives around them. But this can become misleading — and even dangerous — when it disconnects emotion from reflection, restraint, and responsibility.

Theodore Dalrymple, in his book Spoilt Rotten: The Toxic Cult of Sentimentality, challenges this cultural trend with unusual clarity. He writes:

“The notion that human relations ought to be permanently and passionately blissful, and therefore that every social, contractual, economic and customary obstacle to the achievement of this end ought to be removed, thereby eliminating every source of frustration and motive for hypocrisy, leads to overindulgence, neglect and violence.”

Dalrymple’s book stands apart from the modern emotional narrative. It doesn’t reject emotion — but it places it within a moral and social framework. It emphasizes that feeling something doesn’t automatically make it right, and that unchecked sentimentality can distort judgment and erode personal responsibility.

I imagine this perspective won’t be popular with everyone. But perhaps that’s exactly what makes it worth reading.

In a world where black is presented as white, red as blue, and pink as red, living in truth becomes incredibly difficult. The lines between feeling and fact, between compassion and confusion, are blurred.

And yet, Theodore Dalrymple has the courage to speak clearly — to name what he sees and to question the emotional orthodoxy that so often replaces reasoned thought.

I’m not naïve. I don’t believe this book will open everyone’s eyes. It’s not designed to comfort, but to confront. Still, I believe it will matter — profoundly — to those few who are still searching for something deeper than today’s narrative: something grounded in moral clarity, intellectual honesty, and a deep concern for what happens to us when sentiment replaces sense.