Dr. Stewart, therapist

From the (once venerable) Village Voice:

The anchor-as-shrink analogy recalls Philip Rieff's 1965 book The Triumph of the Therapeutic, in which he defined the "psychological man," who shuns the messy realities of the public arena and turns inward to address his own interests and emotions. We might postulate that the psychological Stewart fan disengages from politics not out of selfishness or ignorance but out of a sense of helplessness—the kind of hysterical-in-all-senses incredulity that produces some of The Daily Show's giddiest contact highs.