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bookaholiz's review against another edition
4.0
The topic of this book is intriguing and somewhat provocative, as wellness is all the craze at the moment. I, myself, am also a victim of this wellness syndrome the authors were talking about, and it’s quite eye-opening to see the flip side of this trend. Overall, it’s an important book to read on, though I do not agree with every argument. I guess it’s because this book doesn’t stop at criticising wellness, it’s rather anti-wellness as a whole. And while the toxic side of wellness is certainly jarring, I don’t believe that all of them are evil, and can be useful to an extent.
The chapter on employment, surveillance and control is especially good, and I wouldn’t have boosted this from a 3 to a 3.5-4ish-star if it wasn’t for that particular chapter. The other chapters, however, were a bit ranting and tiring to read, as the point wasn’t always clear and arguments were a bit all over the place.
Nevertheless, I do genuinely recommend people to read this book to get a perspective on why society is pushing forward this wellness agenda, so that we wouldn’t lose our sight on what really matters to our wellbeing. And to not feel the guilt that has been unfairly placed upon us for not being able to change our own circumstances. The one who’s responsible for this unrelenting guilt is really just capitalism, honey.
The chapter on employment, surveillance and control is especially good, and I wouldn’t have boosted this from a 3 to a 3.5-4ish-star if it wasn’t for that particular chapter. The other chapters, however, were a bit ranting and tiring to read, as the point wasn’t always clear and arguments were a bit all over the place.
Nevertheless, I do genuinely recommend people to read this book to get a perspective on why society is pushing forward this wellness agenda, so that we wouldn’t lose our sight on what really matters to our wellbeing. And to not feel the guilt that has been unfairly placed upon us for not being able to change our own circumstances. The one who’s responsible for this unrelenting guilt is really just capitalism, honey.
joeri's review against another edition
4.0
This book is a great critique on the happiness/success-ideology that reduces, or rather, transforms every social and political problem to a question of personal success and wellbeing, stating to all of us each day: it's not society or politics that has a problem, but it is you that has a problem, so work on yourself in stead of on collective issues.
In this depoliticizing movement, all responsibility for policical or societal issues is extrapolated from the collective and social field, to the personal responsibility of the individual. So being miserable because you've lost your job due to austerity and the flexibilization of the labourmarket, or can't study because of the high costs and resulting debts, or because you are sick are now all of the sudden your own fault. Happiness and success, we are told, are not things we can more easily acheive if our goverments create the material circumnstances for us to flourish, but in stead by working hard and adequately on ourselves through self-care, self-actualization. The obligation then is to become happy in order to be productive.
The result is that we are coerced to believe that we can only improve our lifes on an individual level, by working at our individual selves, and not through collective, political action.
In this depoliticizing movement, all responsibility for policical or societal issues is extrapolated from the collective and social field, to the personal responsibility of the individual. So being miserable because you've lost your job due to austerity and the flexibilization of the labourmarket, or can't study because of the high costs and resulting debts, or because you are sick are now all of the sudden your own fault. Happiness and success, we are told, are not things we can more easily acheive if our goverments create the material circumnstances for us to flourish, but in stead by working hard and adequately on ourselves through self-care, self-actualization. The obligation then is to become happy in order to be productive.
The result is that we are coerced to believe that we can only improve our lifes on an individual level, by working at our individual selves, and not through collective, political action.
laurenhoward's review against another edition
3.0
The authors aren't likable and missed an opportunity to critique trends that actually merit criticism. Just okay.
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