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A review by kaarna
The Wellness Syndrome by Carl Cederström, Andre Spicer
4.0
3,5 stars, mainly for content. It was not badly written but the main point for me was the idea of the wellness syndrome and its effects on society.
I was really inspired by some of the chapters. I enjoyed reading critique on mindfulness, self-monitoring, and firm-based wellness programs. I would criticize the authors' experience and knowledge on fat acceptance, or rather the lack of knowledge on body positivity. The movement, I feel, has long since moved on from fat acceptance to body positivity, and it is therefore unwise to write about the former without including the latter. This, in turn, made me question the authors' knowledge on barebacking culture, though I can't claim to have enough knowledge on that myself to judge their knowledge level.
But these last two things were only used as examples of resistance of the wellness syndrome in the last chapter before the conclusion. The main chapters themselves were wonderful. The ones criticizing the hype around wellness, search for happiness in all cost, or using all your life searching for ways to be more productive. And explaining how this all tied in with neoliberal capitalism and its values and valuelessness. How politics can be made empty so that everything is personal and nothing is political, so that your only way of making any changes is to make changes to your own body.
And still we have to fight for bodily autonomy, especially for women, trans people, disabled people and sex workers. *While* we fight capitalism and liberalism. While we fight to keep things political, to keep the political decisions and their consequences reported, to keep people informed, and to keep them/us motivated enough to keep on fighting. To keep them/us believing in the power we have to change things.
Well, this has long since ceased to be a book review. I think someone can read this book from a less political point of view, too. I can't.
I was really inspired by some of the chapters. I enjoyed reading critique on mindfulness, self-monitoring, and firm-based wellness programs. I would criticize the authors' experience and knowledge on fat acceptance, or rather the lack of knowledge on body positivity. The movement, I feel, has long since moved on from fat acceptance to body positivity, and it is therefore unwise to write about the former without including the latter. This, in turn, made me question the authors' knowledge on barebacking culture, though I can't claim to have enough knowledge on that myself to judge their knowledge level.
But these last two things were only used as examples of resistance of the wellness syndrome in the last chapter before the conclusion. The main chapters themselves were wonderful. The ones criticizing the hype around wellness, search for happiness in all cost, or using all your life searching for ways to be more productive. And explaining how this all tied in with neoliberal capitalism and its values and valuelessness. How politics can be made empty so that everything is personal and nothing is political, so that your only way of making any changes is to make changes to your own body.
And still we have to fight for bodily autonomy, especially for women, trans people, disabled people and sex workers. *While* we fight capitalism and liberalism. While we fight to keep things political, to keep the political decisions and their consequences reported, to keep people informed, and to keep them/us motivated enough to keep on fighting. To keep them/us believing in the power we have to change things.
Well, this has long since ceased to be a book review. I think someone can read this book from a less political point of view, too. I can't.