The Happiness Industry: How the Government and Big Business Sold us Well-Being

Why are we so interested in measuring happiness?

What was a Buddhist monk doing at the 2014 World Economic Forum in Davos lecturing the world’s leaders on mindfulness? Why do many successful corporations have a ‘chief happiness officer’? What can the chemical composition of your brain tell a potential employer about you?

In the past decade, governments and corporations have become increasingly interested in measuring the way people feel: ‘the Happiness index’, ‘Gross National Happiness’, ‘well-being’ and positive psychology have come to dominate the way we live our lives. As a result, our emotions have become a new resource to be bought and sold.

In a fascinating investigation combining history, science and ideas, William Davies shows how well-being influences all aspects of our lives: business, finance, marketing and smart technology. This book will make you rethink everything from the way you work, the power of the ‘Nudge’, the ever-expanding definitions of depression, and the commercialization of your most private feelings. The Happiness Industry is a shocking and brilliantly argued warning about the new religion of the age: our emotions.

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Feeling ashamed for not being happier? On an endless quest to transform yourself?

Feeling ashamed for not being happier? On an endless quest to transform yourself?

Leading academics Carl Cederström, André Spicer and Renata Salecl gather to explore how wellness has become an unhealthy obsession in western societies, and how living ‘well’ has become synonymous with being morally good.

They will argue that visions of social change have been reduced to dreams of individual transformation, and political debate has been replaced by insipid moralising. By moving from the welfare state to the ‘wellness state’, we undergo a shift in wellbeing as a collective responsibility toward it being an individual choice spearheaded by corporations. And paradoxically, we end up more anxious and unwell as a result.

The Wellness Syndrome

The Wellness Syndrome

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Not exercising as much as you should? Counting your calories in your sleep? Feeling ashamed for not being happier? You may be a victim of the wellness syndrome.

In this ground–breaking new book, Carl Cederström and André Spicer argue that the ever–present pressure to maximize our wellness has started to work against us, making us feel worse and provoking us to withdraw into ourselves. The Wellness Syndrome follows health freaks who go to extremes to find the perfect diet, corporate athletes who start the day with a dance party, and the self–trackers who monitor everything, including their own toilet habits. This is a world where feeling good has become indistinguishable from being good. Visions of social change have been reduced to dreams of individual transformation, political debate has been replaced by insipid moralising, and scientific evidence has been traded for new–age delusions. A lively and humorous diagnosis of the cult of wellness, this book is an indispensable guide for everyone suspicious of our relentless quest to be happier and healthier.

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See also

Darian Leader on the Marketing of Depression