East Baton Rouge Parish Library

Status anxiety, Alain de Botton

eng

libretto or text

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Status anxiety

75958886

Alain de Botton

This is a book about an almost universal anxiety that rarely gets mentioned directly: an anxiety about what others think of us, about whether we're judged a success or a failure, a winner or a loser. This is a book about status anxiety. Alain de Botton, best-selling author of "The consolations of philosophy" and "The art of travel", asks, with lucidity and charm, where our worries about status come from and what, if anything, we can do to surmount them. With the help of philosophers, artists and writers, he examines the origins of status anxiety (ranging from the consequences of the French Revolution to our secret dismay at the success of our friends) before revealing ingenious ways in which people have been able to overcome their worries in the search for happiness. We learn about sandal-less philosophers and topless bohemians, about the benefits of putting skulls on our sideboards, and about looking at ancient ruins

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