Synopses & Reviews
Stress. Everyone is talking about it, suffering from it, trying desperately to manage it-now more than ever. From 1970 to 1980, 2,326 academic articles appeared with the word "stress" in the title. In the decade between 2000 and 2010 that number jumped to 21,750. Has life become ten times more stressful, or is it the stress concept itself that has grown exponentially over the past 40 years?
In One Nation Under Stress, Dana Becker argues that our national infatuation with the therapeutic culture has created a middle-class moral imperative to manage the tensions of daily life by turning inward, ignoring the social and political realities that underlie those tensions. Becker shows that although stress is often associated with conditions over which people have little control-workplace policies unfavorable to family life, increasing economic inequality, war in the age of terrorism-the stress concept focuses most of our attention on how individuals react to stress. A proliferation of self-help books and dire medical warnings about the negative effects of stress on our physical and emotional health all place the responsibility for alleviating stress-though yoga, deep breathing, better diet, etc.-squarely on the individual. The stress concept has come of age in a period of tectonic social and political shifts. Nevertheless, we persist in the all-American belief that we can meet these changes by re-engineering ourselves rather than tackling the root causes of stress.
Examining both research and popular representations of stress in cultural terms, Becker traces the evolution of the social uses of the stress concept as it has been transformed into an all-purpose vehicle for defining, expressing, and containing middle-class anxieties about upheavals in American society.
Review
"At the pinnacle of her career, Susan Folkman has gathered the most thorough and up-to-date information on stress, health, and coping that science has to offer. It reflects her signature attention to the complexities and scope of human responses to adversity, encompassing both negative and positive processes and outcomes. Scientists and practitioners alike will benefit from learning the latest research articulated by the leading scientists represented in this volume."
Barbara L. Fredrickson, Ph.D.
Kenan Distinguished Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
"THE OXFORD HANDBOOK OF STRESS, HEALTH, AND COPING is an outstanding collection of chapters authored by eminent figures in the field. Not only is the contributor list outstanding, the coverage of topics is also superb. This book is certain to become the go-to volume for people from wide-ranging disciplines who are interested in the topics of stress, coping, and health."
Charles S. Carver, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology, University of Miami
"This is a superb book. Susan Folkman, one of the pioneers of stress and coping research, has assembled a rich collection of essays by the current leaders of the field. The chapters in this book provide a wonderful overview of the current state of the field, integrating sharp critical insights with the newest research developments into a single, well-organized volume that will serve as a valuable resource for researchers, theorists, students, educators, and practitioners."
George A. Bonanno, Ph.D.
Professor of Clinical Psychology, Columbia University
"This excellent book is full of research findings that lay a solid foundation for this area of study. The authors not only talk about stress and coping processes, they also address intervention. It is must reading for anyone involved in health psychology." -- Cermak Health Services
"In this powerful book, Becker, an associate professor of social work at Bryn Mawr College, argues that there's a bigger, more basic problem. Balancing a career and the demands of the domestic sphere is not just a "woman's problem," she contends. It's a societal problem... An important book for psychologists, gender studies students, anthropologists, business leaders, and policy makers alike." -- Publisher's Weekly
Review
"At the pinnacle of her career, Susan Folkman has gathered the most thorough and up-to-date information on stress, health, and coping that science has to offer. It reflects her signature attention to the complexities and scope of human responses to adversity, encompassing both negative and positive processes and outcomes. Scientists and practitioners alike will benefit from learning the latest research articulated by the leading scientists represented in this volume."
Barbara L. Fredrickson, Ph.D.
Kenan Distinguished Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
"THE OXFORD HANDBOOK OF STRESS, HEALTH, AND COPING is an outstanding collection of chapters authored by eminent figures in the field. Not only is the contributor list outstanding, the coverage of topics is also superb. This book is certain to become the go-to volume for people from wide-ranging disciplines who are interested in the topics of stress, coping, and health."
Charles S. Carver, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology, University of Miami
"This is a superb book. Susan Folkman, one of the pioneers of stress and coping research, has assembled a rich collection of essays by the current leaders of the field. The chapters in this book provide a wonderful overview of the current state of the field, integrating sharp critical insights with the newest research developments into a single, well-organized volume that will serve as a valuable resource for researchers, theorists, students, educators, and practitioners."
George A. Bonanno, Ph.D.
Professor of Clinical Psychology, Columbia University
"This excellent book is full of research findings that lay a solid foundation for this area of study. The authors not only talk about stress and coping processes, they also address intervention. It is must reading for anyone involved in health psychology." -- Cermak Health Services
"In this powerful book, Becker, an associate professor of social work at Bryn Mawr College, argues that there's a bigger, more basic problem. Balancing a career and the demands of the domestic sphere is not just a "woman's problem," she contends. It's a societal problem... An important book for psychologists, gender studies students, anthropologists, business leaders, and policy makers alike." -- Publisher's Weekly
Review
"In this powerful book, Becker, an associate professor of social work at Bryn Mawr College, argues that there's a bigger, more basic problem. Balancing a career and the demands of the domestic sphere is not just a "woman's problem," she contends. It's a societal problem... An important book for psychologists, gender studies students, anthropologists, business leaders, and policy makers alike." -- Publisher's Weekly
Review
"In One Nation Under Stress, Dana Becker exposes the ideological work accomplished by the concept of stress. With dry wit and stylish prose, Becker enables us to finally see what is right before our eyes."
--Jeanne Marecek, former Wm. Kenan Professor Emerita of Psychology, Senior Research Professor
"A compelling exposé of what Becker calls 'stressism' - the pervasive idea that the tensions of everyday living are due almost entirely to our individual lifestyle choices and deficiencies, to be fixed by managing stress. Not only does this siphon all our efforts into individualized, and often futile solutions, but it obscures the social and economic conditions that perpetuate injustice, inequality, and 'stress.' Forget about poverty, sexism, racism, and working for political change; soak in a scented bath and light some nice candles instead. This is an important and timely book."
--Nicola Gavey, Associate Professor, DipClinPsych, PhD, University of Auckland
"In this powerful book, Becker, an associate professor of social work at Bryn Mawr College, argues that there's a bigger, more basic problem. Balancing a career and the demands of the domestic sphere is not just a "woman's problem," she contends. It's a societal problem... An important book for psychologists, gender studies students, anthropologists, business leaders, and policy makers alike." -- Publisher's Weekly
Synopsis
The wear and tear of American life has been a topic of public concern ever since the mid-nineteenth century when middle-class men faced pressures to succeed in a newly industrialized society. But although stress is often associated with conditions over which people have little control--workplace policies unfavorable to family life, increasing economic inequality, war in the age of terrorism--the stress concept focuses most of our attention on the ways individuals react to stress. Several decades ago when the stress concept began to gain popularity, it would have been inconceivable that in only a matter of decades we'd be applying it to such divergent conditions as a soldier's nighttime terrors and a manager's tense work day. In this book, Becker argues that our national infatuation with neurobiology and our immersion in the therapeutic culture have created a middle-class moral imperative to manage the tensions of daily life by boosting our coping abilities, our self-esteem or our immune systems, turning our gaze inward and obscuring our view of the social and political conditions that underlie those tensions. The stress concept has come of age in a period of tectonic social and political shifts. Nonetheless, we persist in the all-American belief that we can meet these changes by re-engineering ourselves. Analyzing and interpreting both research and popular representations of stress in cultural terms, Becker follows the evolution of the social uses of the stress concept as it has been transformed into an important vehicle for defining, expressing and containing middle-class anxieties about upheavals in American society.
About the Author
Dana Becker, PhD, is a Professor of Social Work at Bryn Mawr College. Her previous books include
Through the Looking Glass: Women and Borderline Personality Disorder and
The Myth of Empowerment: Women and the Therapeutic Culture in America.
Table of Contents
Chapter One Stress: The New Black Death?
Chapter Two Getting and Spending: The Wear and Tear of Modern Life
Chapter Three Stress and the Biopolitics of American Society
Chapter Four Mars and Venus Stress Out, Naturally
Chapter Five The Other Mommy War: Stress and the Working Mother
Chapter Six Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and the War for Mental Health
Conclusion Vulnerability Reexamined