The Wellness Syndrome

Carl Cederström 지음

Polity 2015년 02월 04일 출간

작품소개

책소개

Not exercising as much as you should? Counting your caloriesin your sleep? Feeling ashamed for not being happier? You may be avictim of the wellness syndrome.In this ground-breaking new book, Carl Cederstr#246;m andAndr#233; Spicer argue that the ever-present pressure to maximizeour wellness has started to work against us, making us feel worseand provoking us to withdraw into ourselves. The Wellness Syndromefollows health freaks who go to extremes to find the perfect diet,corporate athletes who start the day with a dance party, and theself-trackers who monitor everything, including their own toilethabits. This is a world where feeling good has becomeindistinguishable from being good. Visions of social change havebeen reduced to dreams of individual transformation, politicaldebate has been replaced by insipid moralising, and scientificevidence has been traded for new-age delusions. A lively andhumorous diagnosis of the cult of wellness, this book is anindispensable guide for everyone suspicious of our relentless questto be happier and healthier.

목차

PrefaceAcknowledgementsIntroduction1. The Perfect Human2. The Health Bazaar3. The Happiness Doctrine4. The Chosen Life5. Wellness, FarewellConclusionNotes

출판사 서평

"Carl Cederstrom and Andre Spicer?s brilliantly sardonic anatomy of this ?wellness syndrome? concentrates on the ways in which the pressure to be well operates as a moralising command and obliterates political engagement... These authors would no doubt agree that there is nothing wrong with being well or wanting to be well. But, as their deeply humane and persuasive book shows, being told to be well is a different matter entirely. A society where wellness is obligatory is a sick one."Steven Poole, The Guardian"When I read their angry, hilarious book, The Wellness Syndrome, I felt like I was being shaken awake from a dream."Helen Rumbelow, The Times"The Wellness Syndrome slinks like a submarine beneaththe disingenuously placid surface-narratives of contemporaryideology, before torpedoing, with devastating effect, that mostpernicious of all neo-liberal doctrines: positiveness."Tom McCarthy, author of Remainder, C and SatinIsland"A fascinating and timely investigation of the modern ideologyof 'wellness', with its moralizing insistence that being a goodmember of society means meditating more, exercising more and usingyour smartphone to track sleep patterns, your diet and even yoursex life. Carl Cederstrom and Andre Spicer vividly showhow the consumer economy has co-opted health and even happinessitself- and warn that our fixation on wellness is ultimately ananxiety-inducing, isolating and joyless way to live."Oliver Burkeman, Guardian columnist and author of TheAntidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand PositiveThinking"A wonderful piece of work which exposes the wellness ideologyfor what it is: a stupid and dreadful fantasy of authenticself-mastery. As this timely and entertaining book shows, suchfantasies must be nailed.'Simon Critchley, The New School for Social Research'We all obscurely sense that politics

작가정보

저자(글) Carl Cederström

Carl Cedertröm is Associate Professor at StockholmUniversityAndre Spicer is Professor of Organisational Behaviour atCass Business School, City University, London