
Better Than Well
American Medicine Meets the American Dream
Carl Elliott(Author)
WW Norton & Co (Publisher)
Published on 17. March 2003
Book
Hardback
384 pages
978-0-393-05201-5 (ISBN)
Description
In the tradition of The Culture of Narcissism and Listening to Prozac, a resonant exploration of the paradoxes of self-improvement. Americans have always been the world's most anxiously enthusiastic consumers of "enhancement technologies." There is nothing novel about our use of Prozac and Viagra, or in our yearning toward cosmetic surgery and Botox injections, except the names of the drugs and the procedures. With the success of each new medical technology, a familiar pattern of response surfaces: public hand-wringing, an occasional congressional hearing, calls for self-reliance. "We have created in America a culture of drugs." The speaker? Richard Nixon. Better Than Well offers a diagnosis rather than an argument. Why do we feel uneasy about these drugs, procedures, and therapies even while we embrace them? Where do we draw the line between self and society? Why do we seek self-realization in ways so heavily influenced by cultural conformity?This wise, humane, and provocative book traces the fault lines in our peculiarly obsessive pursuit of happiness.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 241 mm
Width: 165 mm
Thickness: 33 mm
Weight
675 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-393-05201-5 (9780393052015)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Carl Elliott is a professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Minnesota. A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar Award, he is the author of Better Than Well and White Coat, Black Hat. He lives in Minnesota.