From the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Science of Storytelling comes a bold and ambitious investigation of status that will redefine human culture for our times
From the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Science of Storytelling comes a bold and ambitious investigation of status that will redefine human culture for our times
From the author of "The Heretics" and "Selfie", this is an exploration of how master storytellers manipulate and compel us, from the Hebrew scriptures to "Mr Men", Booker Prize winning novels to TV box sets.
We are living in an age of heightened individualism. Success is a
personal responsibility. Our culture tells us that to succeed is to be
slim, rich, happy, extroverted, popular—flawless. We have become
self-obsessed. And our expectation of perfection comes at a cost.
Millions are suffering under the torture of this impossible fantasy. The
pressure to conform to this ideal has changed who we are.
It was not always like this. To explain how...
From the author of "The Heretics" and "Selfie", this is an exploration of how master storytellers manipulate and compel us, from the Hebrew scriptures to the Mr Men, Booker Prize winning novels and TV box sets.
We leven in het tijdperk van het individu.We moeten slank, welvarend, gelukkig, extrovert en populair zijn. Dat is in onze cultuur het volmaakte beeld dat we van onszelf horen te hebben. We komen dat beeld ook overal tegen: in de reclame, de pers, alom in de sociale media. We krijgen voortdurend te horen dat we aan dat ideaalbeeld kunnen voldoen als we maar gewoon onze dromen najagen, dat we alles kunnen bereiken wat we maar willen, dat wij ze...
Electrifying' Financial Times
'Brilliant' Independent
'Fascinating' Guardian
We are living in an age of heightened individualism. Success is a personal responsibility. Our culture tells us that to succeed is to be slim, rich, happy, extroverted, popular - flawless. The pressure to conform to this ideal has changed who we are. We have become self-obsessed. And our expectation of perfection comes at a cost. Millions are suffering under the tortu...
We live in the age of the individual. Every day, we're bombarded with depictions of the beautiful, successful, slim, socially conscious, and extroverted individual that our culture has decided is the perfect self, and we berate ourselves when we don't measure up. This model of the perfect self and the impossibly high standards it sets can be extremely dangerous. People are suffering under the torture of this impossible fantasy, and unprecedent...
We live in the age of the individual.We are supposed to be slim, prosperous, happy, extroverted and popular. This is our culture’s image of the perfect self. We see this person everywhere: in advertising, in the press, all over social media. We’re told that to be this person we just have to follow our dreams, that our potential is limitless, that we are the source of our own success.But this model of the perfect self can be extremely dangerous...
