I am not a lawyer, but if I take at face value the description of a number of cases in Australia across recent times – particularly those involving allegations of sexual assault – I think there are patterns occurring. These patterns fit into what Philip Rieff described in the 1960s in his The Triumph of the Therapeutic – although his ‘description’ could be better thought of as a warning.

Rieff claimed that ‘therapeutic’ was the symbol for truth in our era, and that it was overtaking (and many would now say has overtaken) sacred safety barriers in the public square.