Spicer Andre Cederstr & amp - The Wellness Syndrome

The Wellness Syndrome slinks like a submarine beneath the disingenuously placid surface-narratives of contemporary ideology, before torpedoing, with devastating effect, that most pernicious of all neoliberal doctrines: positiveness.
Tom McCarthy, author of Remainder, C and Satin Island

A fascinating and timely investigation of the modern ideology of wellness, with its moralizing insistence that being a good member of society means meditating more, exercising more and using your smartphone to track sleep patterns, your diet and even your sex life. Carl Cederstrm and Andr Spicer vividly show how the consumer economy has co-opted health and even happiness itself and warn that our fixation on wellness is ultimately an anxiety-inducing, isolating and joyless way to live.
Oliver Burkeman, Guardian columnist and author of The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking

A wonderful piece of work which exposes the wellness ideology for what it is: a stupid and dreadful fantasy of authentic self-mastery. As this timely and entertaining book shows, such fantasies must be nailed.
Simon Critchley, The New School for Social Research

We all obscurely sense that politics has dramatically shifted. Less involved in the body politic than ever, we are all far more deeply engaged with our own bodies, through medicine, meditation workshops or fitness classes. As this insightful and elegant book shows, this shift marks a dramatic change in our societies as it makes health and happiness the new markers of morality or immorality. Fat people and smokers are now united in their common immorality. Marshalling an impressive array of evidence, this book sheds a much-needed light on the new tyranny exerted by the cultural imperatives of health and happiness.
Eva Illouz, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Using a comprehensive set of case studies, Carl Cederstrm and Andr Spicer diagnose contemporary capitalism's obsession with wellness. The Wellness Syndrome is a mordantly witty analysis of how ideology works today. It demonstrates that the fixation on health is itself pathological and that sickness can be liberating.
Mark Fisher, Goldsmiths University

For Esther and Rita

Copyright Carl Cederstrm and Andr Spicer 2015

The right of Carl Cederstrm and Andr Spicer to be identified as Authors of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2015 by Polity Press

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All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-5560-4

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-5561-1 (pb)

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-8893-0 (epub)

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-8872-5 (mobi)

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Cederstrm, Carl, 1980

The wellness syndrome / Carl Cederstrm, Andr Spicer.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-7456-5560-4 (hardback : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-7456-5561-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Conduct of life. 2. Well-being. I. Title.

BJ1595.C623 2015

128dc23

2014022503

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Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition.

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Being a good person these days does not mean curbing the sinful longings of the body, mortifying the weak flesh, following your conscience and preparing through constant prayer for your departure from this life here below; it means living well. Bad cess to anyone who lets a day pass without some enjoyment!

Herv Juvin, The Coming of the Body, 2010

As students at the cole Normale Suprieure, Sartre and his close friends had more important things to contemplate than their personal wellness. A generous observer might have described their diet as varied: a massive intake of stodgy books alternated with laxatives, consisting of cigarettes, coffee and hard liquor. In a world defined by absurdity, there were more acute issues to deal with than perfecting one's physical wellbeing. For Sartre's set, being students was to engage promiscuously with thinking, and to take risks with one's mind not to waste time thinking about how to eat correctly.

Slightly less than a century later we find a new trend at North American universities. To shape their lives in an image of wellbeing, thousands of students across the United States are encouraged to sign wellness contracts. You agree to a lifestyle aimed at enhancing body, mind and soul. If you sign the Campus Wellness Contract at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, you promise to maintain an alcohol- and drug-free lifestyle. You will then get a taste of what such contracts call a holistic approach to living. But then you have to give something back. You have to contribute positively to the community, respect different motivations for choosing this living option, participate in community events, and not possess drink or other drugs. And of course you need to abide by the philosophy of the Wellness community.

These wellness contracts are not incidental. They are now offered by at least a dozen universities across the United States. While most promote a substance-free lifestyle, each university has its own shtick. North Dakota takes a broad approach, offering physical, social, emotional, environmental, spiritual and intellectual wellness. At Syracuse, you get group trips to local parks and lakes. You also get nutrition demonstrations and presentations; meditation, yoga and other forms of stress reduction; parfait nights and more. In the more committed wellness communities, students are requested to carefully monitor their progress against the wellness goals they set out at the beginning of the year.

This may be a good thing for eager young students, at least if you ask their concerned parents. Wellness contracts make sure that students avoid harmful hedonism while encouraging other social activities (such as the mandatory parfait nights). What is wrong with turning universities into year-round health spas to help students grow their bodies and minds?

The problem, of course, is that this project produces a very particular version of the student: the sanitized and straight-thinking student, who would not mix well with Sartre and his radical friends. What is likely to disappear here is a particular kind of college education where students experiment with transformative politics, take mind-expanding substances, encounter the ravages of an unhealthy diet, and experience intense and soul-destroying relationships.