De-institutionalization forces individuals to undertake the difficult and anxiety-provoking task of building their own little world. They need help. Modern society has developed an array of agencies to provide such help. … They offer the individual different programs to cope with various contingencies. Since they lack the taken-for-granted quality of the old primary institutions, they are more fragile and less reliable. … There exists a vast network of help organizations and professions – psychiatrists, psychotheraptists, social workers, unaccredited ‘life coaches’, gurus, and support groupe. Some are supplied by the welfare state, others by non-profit organizations. Some can be purchased on the market. There is also a huge supply of books and Internet websites offering advice of every conceivable sort.
Peter L. Berger. The Many Altars of Modernity. De Gruyter: Boston/Berlin, 2014. (14)
