It came with experience, and certain types of learning, such as intense religious study. It was considered a tremendously worthwhile quality. People who had it were respected. Now, all it takes is four years of study in the right field and you're wise. Caring and humane talk-show hosts have psychiatrists on their shows to teach people that their most perverse and depraved impulses are okay.
Psychologists have radio shows to broadcast their cures to the entire population.
Newspaper advice columnists recommend counseling to anyone and everyone who claims difficulty adjusting. The amount of faith our society puts into these legions of professional listeners is astonishing - especially considering the poor record they have for producing results. If it was nearly as effective as proponents claim, our lives would have improved dramatically over the past seventy-five or a hundred years. Technology, medicine and the civil rights movement have all caused much bigger improvements in our lives than any form of counseling or therapy. It's about time that someone had the courage to admit that the therapists and counselors and their ilk, as learned as they may be, don't really know the answers.