American Mania: When More is Not Enough - Hardcover

Whybrow describes an affluence in America that far outstrips need and a rampant greed spawning the addictions of consumer culture--food, money and technology. Citing the alarming statistics of obesity, depression and panic disorders, Whybrow points to forms of behaviour that are testing the limits of America's ancestral biology--in mind and body--and threaten to erode the very foundations of American community. Drawing upon case studies, Whybrow offers guidance and a vantage point from which to understand America's most pressing social and medical issues. This provocative volume, grounded in science and philosophy, calls for collective action in refocusing the pursuit of happiness and enhancing America's prosperity.

PETER C. WHYBROW is the Judson Braun Professor of Psychiatry and Bio-behavioral Science and the director of the Neuropsychiatric Institute at the Jane and Terry Semel Institute of Neuroscience and Human Behavior (UCLA).