Selfie: How the West Became Self-Obsessed

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 you just have to follow your 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. People are
suffering under the torture of this impossible fantasy. Unprecedented
social pressure is leading to increases in depression and suicide. Where
does this ideal come from? Why is it so powerful? Is there any way to
break its spell? To answer these questions, Selfie by Will
Storr takes us from the shores of Ancient Greece, through the Christian
Middle Ages, to the self-esteem evangelists of 1980s California, the
rise of narcissism and the selfie generation, and right up to the era of
hyper-individualistic neoliberalism in which we live now. It tells the extraordinary story of the person we all know so intimately – our self.