Selfie

How We Became So Self-Obsessed and What It's Doing to Us

By: Will Storr

Narrated by: Jack Hawkins

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 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 hyperindividualistic 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.

©2017 Will Storr (P)2017 Macmillan Digital Audio

Critic reviews

"Fascinating." ( The Times)

"Thoughtful and engaging." ( Guardian)

"Brilliant." ( Evening Standard)

"Electrifying." ( Financial Times)

"Approaching genius." ( Sunday Times)

Absolutely reassuring

I loved this book so much, especially the exposure of the self esteem task force (groundbreaking!), the journey throughout history, the humor and how this focus on individualism influences our mental states. Found it greatly reassuring to hear my instincts on achievable goals don't have anything to do with 'underestimating yourself' or anything like that. Must read if you ever feel like not being enough, whilst you got the feeling you should be capable of being anyone you imagine.

History book of individual human

Great start and great ending. Had a bit hard time in the middle. Connecting some stories to the whole was not easy-going ride. Still would recommend and suggest to just jump chapter if it gets to too much history. The story is jumping anyway, so you can just start the next.

Highly recommended book

As someone very interested in personality, the social sciences in general, l really enjoyed this book.
It was interesting to hear that the author is is a high neurotic personality type like myself and learning about this through his experiences and views helped me tremendously. The narrator is also fantastic.

Wrong title

I honestly can't really tell what this book is about, but I know what is not about and that's not what the title or the tagline suggest.

I think 95% of the people buying this would think, based on the title, that this is book is about the digital era, but it only touches on that after 8 hours, and then just briefly.

There's some interesting parts, but I found it long and winding and not really going anywhere.

As I said, the title really hurts the book, because it's pretty much clickbait.