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Selfie

How the West Became Self-Obsessed

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Selfie

By: Will Storr
Narrated by: Jack Hawkins, Will Storr
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We live in the age of the individual.

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.

Exclusive to the audiobook, Selfie includes a unique 15-minute interview with the author, Will Storr, and reader, Jack Hawkins.

 Anthropology Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Social Psychology & Interactions Thought-Provoking Inspiring
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Critic reviews

Selfie is far more ambitious than its title might suggest: a serious (although funny) philosophical and psychological inquiry into consciousness. Storr has taken perhaps the most interesting subject (who we are and how we feel about it) and pieced together an overarching narrative from the latest neuroscientific research, smart reporting and careful selections of his personal history. It illuminates much of what feels peculiar about the world in 2017 . . . [Storr] has put in a formidable amount of work, he is irascibly good company, and he has something approaching genius for marshalling his material . . . This could be a pessimistic book. In fact, its insights are timely and welcome (Richard Godwin)
Storr has done huge amounts of research for this book . . . he conveys it with a gifted lightness of touch that is wry and funny (his investigative mode has been compared to those of Jon Ronson and Louis Theroux, with which I wouldn’t disagree) . . . entertaining . . . fascinating
As entertaining as it is provocative and disquieting . . . His breezy prose is bedded down in intensive research, much of it immersive . . . his closing thoughts can’t help but be comforting
An ambitious argument . . . Storr is an electrifying analyst of internet culture, documenting the rise of connectivity in prose that crackles with the energy of the early 21st century . . . an excellent antidote to time-wasting on social media
Thoughtful and engaging . . . wonderfully funny . . . Storr’s cultural history is fascinating
This book is IMMENSE; like reading an Adam Curtis documentary (Stuart Heritage)
Storr is a magnificent reporter in the mould of Jon Ronson or Louis Theroux . . . Selfie is profound, uncomfortable, joyful, frustrating, fascinating, fragmented, inspired, heartbreaking, and occasionally riven with internal contradictions. Just like a person, really (Helen Lewis)
Brilliant . . . There aren’t many authors who can range so confidently across disciplines and, if you go with the flow, you’ll encounter some fascinating nuggets along the way . . . inspiring (Rohan Silva)
All stars
Most relevant
The book overall is really fascinating. I learned so much new about or Western Self. The only downer are some veeery long passages, in particular about Eselan, that should have been shortened. I don‘t need to know entire histories in order to get the gist.
Also a few times too biased. To discredit safe spaces at universities by using the most ridiculous examples is very deceptive.

Fascinating account - perhaps too long

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An interesting book but, like others who have written reviews, I wish I had read it instead. Even an automated voice narrating this story may have proved less torturous in places.

The problem is not simply that the narrator does accents - it’s that his enthusiasm is undiminished by the fact he has no natural talent for them. From one chapter to the next, I groaned inwardly whenever he began quoting a new interviewee who had the misfortune of being based anywhere except the UK. Even then, I suspect on at least one occasion he chose to introduce a Scottish accent when nothing in the text justified it. It made whole swathes of the audiobook almost impossible to concentrate on as the narrator blundered his way through barely intelligible approximations of American, Australian and Irish accents.

His tiresome dedication to his art had some limitations, however, as I noticed with some amusement that he did not attempt to do an accent for a Korean professor interviewed in the book. In truth, it would have hardly been any less crude (or at times inappropriate) than his other performances. This perhaps exposes a blindspot suffered by audiobook producers - would this kind of excruciatingly stereotypical accent, performed so poorly, be appropriate in other contexts? Given the answer is clearly no, it should raise questions about why it’s allowed to persist at all. Particularly when it makes a good book almost unlistenable.

Why the accents, why?

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Fascinating exploration into the history and psychology of the western obsession with the self. Punctuated by personal stories about the author's own struggles which I'm sure many will empathise with.

Highly Recommend

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well read, well-written and while not a self help book it tells me s bit more about my self.

fascinating

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Interesting bitesize concepts book. The author really does not like catholics and has very little knowledge of the base concepts, evidenced by certain statements he made - surprising for a boy that was born and raised a Catholic - that being said - his dislike unbeknownst to him has set the religion in a good light in the book

Interesting insights

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