Status anxiety

by Alain de Botton

306 pages

English language

Published Dec. 4, 2005 by Vintage International.

ISBN:: 978-0-375-72535-7
OCLC Number:: 60342480

(11 reviews)

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. We care about our status for a simple reason: because most people tend to be nice to us according to the amount of status we have (it is no coincidence that the first question we tend to be asked by new acquaintances is ‘ What do you do?’). With the help of philosophers, artists and writers, the book 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 learnt to overcome their worries in their search for happiness. It aims not only to be entertaining, …

4 editions

Stephanie Jane reviewed Status anxiety by Alain de Botton

A wide survey of historical attitudes

4 stars

As someone who is consciously trying to step away from the West's predominantly consumer-driven lifestyles I am not De Botton's prime audience for this accessible philosophy work, however I still found a lot to interest me. I particularly liked his wide survey of historical attitudes to social status which looked at examples back to ancient Greece and Rome. It turns out that while what we believe will set us ahead of our peers has changed drastically, our need to consider ourselves just ahead of the pack is one of the basic tenets of our social systems. De Botton quotes from many previous philosophers and writers right back to Socrates, but also taking in the ideas of unexpected thinkers such as Jane Austen. This is one of those books that really needs to be studied as well as just read - although it does work well as a straight read-through - however I am now struggling to recall all the names and ideas that whirled through my brain only a couple of days ago! I would recommend Status Anxiety as excellent food for thought to anyone feeling stressed about 'keeping up with the Joneses' or with a nagging sense that the goal they are desperately striving for isn't perhaps working out to be as satisfying as they had hoped.

wiz2 reviewed Status anxiety by Alain de Botton

Review of 'Status anxiety' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Another beautiful piece of work of de Botton! He might not tell us anything that we didn’t know, but he puts all the pieces together in an absolute coherence and offers a philosophy book way more self-help one than the self-help ones. A beautiful merge of philosophy, art, history and economics of capitalism in which none sentence is dull,arbitrarily all are eloquently chosen.

The key message of Alain de Botton:

Although many people in modern society spend their lives striving to achieve wealth, respect, and power, that struggle can lead to a deep anxiety about how we measure up to our peers. We might do well to remember that our vision of success is a very new one, and that our predecessors in past societies didn’t share the same fear of being perceived as a nobody or a loser.

Fortunately, there are a few antidotes to the sickness of status …