The Wellness Syndrome

I loved the concept of this book, a critique of the societal command to “be well” (or at least try to be well) that people in the West live under now. Cederstrom's argument is that the wellness command actually imposes guilt and stress on us, makes us narcissistic and takes our attention away from problems that may be more important to solve. In the course of the book he also points out that the motivation behind encouraging people to be well or pursue wellness is not a concern with the actual well being of the people being “encouraged” (or coerced, as the case may be), but the realization that healthy people are more productive, less expensive employees.

All of this resonates with me and I started reading with glee. I was disappointed by sloppiness in places, though. Although the book has a notes section, some assertions that should have had sources cited did not. Unfortunately this made a couple of the middle chapters seem more like polemic than argument.

Overall, though, the critique is good. The last two chapters on electronically assisted control and on people who try to wriggle loose from the wellness command are especially good. I'm glad this book was written!