Lauren Slater discusses research arguing that encouraging people to revisit trauma is counterproductive for many people. Although she's unsympathetic to therapy, citing a study that found that psychotherapy in general helped no more, no less, than the slow passing of time. Even though she's talking about trauma, repressing unpleasant feelings, in the sense of minimizing, distracting, or denying is something that the Chinese often do. And she does show some evidence that repression works for some Americans. She also cites critics who say it doesn't work for everyone. Well, so what? Talk therapy doesn't work for everyone. This assumption that there is one global solution for everyone is something we see a lot of. We assume that since a particular method works in one place, it's going to work everywhere. Not likely. Frinstance, in bilingual education, my colleagues insist that it's not good for kids. Well, anecdotally, I know people including myself who were put into primary schools with zero background in the language and functioned well anyway.