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American Mania: When More is Not Enough
A doctor's bold analysis of the cultural disease that afflicts us all.
Despite an astonishing appetite for life, more and more Americans are feeling overworked and dissatisfied. In the world's most affluent nation, epidemic rates of stress, anxiety, depression, obesity, and time urgency are now grudgingly accepted as part of everyday existence they signal the American Dream gone awry.
Peter C. Whybrow, director of the Neuropsychiatric Institute at UCLA, grounds the extraordinary achievements and excessive consumption of the American nation in an understanding of the biology of the brain's reward system offering for the first time a comprehensive and physical explanation for the addictive mania of consumerism.
American Mania presents a clear and novel vantage point from which to understand the most pressing social issues of our time, while offering an informed approach to refocusing our pursuit of happiness. Drawing upon rich scientific case studies and colorful portraits, "this fascinating and important book will change the way you think about American life" (Karen Olson, Utne Reader).
Despite an astonishing appetite for life, more and more Americans are feeling overworked and dissatisfied. In the world's most affluent nation, epidemic rates of stress, anxiety, depression, obesity, and time urgency are now grudgingly accepted as part of everyday existence they signal the American Dream gone awry.
Peter C. Whybrow, director of the Neuropsychiatric Institute at UCLA, grounds the extraordinary achievements and excessive consumption of the American nation in an understanding of the biology of the brain's reward system offering for the first time a comprehensive and physical explanation for the addictive mania of consumerism.
American Mania presents a clear and novel vantage point from which to understand the most pressing social issues of our time, while offering an informed approach to refocusing our pursuit of happiness. Drawing upon rich scientific case studies and colorful portraits, "this fascinating and important book will change the way you think about American life" (Karen Olson, Utne Reader).
360 pages, Paperback
First published January 30, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
April 7, 2017
If I were still wandering the groves of Academe, I would find a way to induce every first-year college student to read this book. It explains clearly, with insights from both economics and neuroscience, that the ever-growing pursuit of MORE cannot lead to a happy life. That pursuit has led too many Americans to lonely and sedentary lives, starved of real community and lacking in time to enjoy the real wealth they possess -- not a unique message, or a new one, but vitally important. Published in 2004 the book could use an update with insights of the Great Recession and the election as President of an entrepreneurial media star.
December 10, 2007
American Mania: When More is Never Enough
by Peter Whybrow M.D.
Below are my favorite quotes from this provocative book. I would have included more but goodreads only allows 4000 characters per review.
The first two quotes give the basic feel for the book. As a psychiatrist and an immigrant himself, Whybrow uses the mental disorder, manic depression, the migrant temperment of risk-taking and curiosity, and the original capitalism of Adam Smith to explain America's insatiable desire for more wealth. While he doesn't write a prescription by the end of the book, he does diagnose America as ill with corporate greed giving up valuable protective health factors found in local economic community dynamics.
"Selfish behaviors are reward driven and innate, wired deeply into the survival mechanisms of the primitive brain, and when consistently reinforced, they will run away to greed, with its associated craving for money, food, or power. On the other hand, the self-restraint and the empathy for others that are so important in fostering physical and mental health are learned behaviors--largely functions of the new human cortex and thus culturally dependent. These social behaviors are fragile and learned by imitation, much as we learn language. To be sustained across generations they must be carefully nurtured by extended families and viable communities. Inadvertently, in our frenzied search for profit and economic efficiency we have built a consumer society dominated by centralized megamarkets that magnifies desire and minimizes collective responsibility, eroding the small market-based economies that once provided stable and meaningful employment. Our ill health and growing discomfort are in step with these social trends" p. 37
"...the fear is that the financial dominance of the large multinational corporations will squeeze our local entrepreneurs, creating a lifestyle that depends on wage earnings from centralized 'industrial' conglomerates rather than from community-based economies. Because such centralized monopolies are faceless and anonymous, the argument goes, they are destructive of a civil society--defined as a stable human community based on collaboration and mutual caring--replacing it with the competitive law of the jungle, where the biggest and most powerful dominate. Individual cooperation and creativity--the foundation of artistic expression, craftsmanship, and local market-based economies--are devalued in favor of mass production, shifting the cultural emphasis away from individual preference toward what Alexis de Tocqueville described as 'an imperfect substitute' designed for a broad audience" p. 197.
"If as a culture America continues to reinforce self-interest at the expense of social reinvestment, then predictably our cultural-economic system will run away to greed" p. 234.
"Whereas democracy strives for one person--one vote, with globalization the operating reality has become one dollar---one vote" p. 194.
"Another consequence of the increasing consolidation of commerce and the destruction of small community-based markets is that the distribution of wealth in America is becoming badly skewed. This trend, and it shows little sign of abating, fosters envy, the debt accumulation, and the demand-driven work environments that fuel the discomforting frenzy experienced by many American families. The result--again predictable from knowledge of the dynamics of human behavior--is that the delicate balance between individual desire and social responsibility-- the bedrock of a healthy society--is increasingly threatened" p. 8.
"Wealth, in the migrant vision, although coveted and eagerly sought, brings only transient pleasure, for prosperity lies forever ahead, beyond the horizon. For those trapped in such addictive striving, more is never enough" p. 107.
by Peter Whybrow M.D.
Below are my favorite quotes from this provocative book. I would have included more but goodreads only allows 4000 characters per review.
The first two quotes give the basic feel for the book. As a psychiatrist and an immigrant himself, Whybrow uses the mental disorder, manic depression, the migrant temperment of risk-taking and curiosity, and the original capitalism of Adam Smith to explain America's insatiable desire for more wealth. While he doesn't write a prescription by the end of the book, he does diagnose America as ill with corporate greed giving up valuable protective health factors found in local economic community dynamics.
"Selfish behaviors are reward driven and innate, wired deeply into the survival mechanisms of the primitive brain, and when consistently reinforced, they will run away to greed, with its associated craving for money, food, or power. On the other hand, the self-restraint and the empathy for others that are so important in fostering physical and mental health are learned behaviors--largely functions of the new human cortex and thus culturally dependent. These social behaviors are fragile and learned by imitation, much as we learn language. To be sustained across generations they must be carefully nurtured by extended families and viable communities. Inadvertently, in our frenzied search for profit and economic efficiency we have built a consumer society dominated by centralized megamarkets that magnifies desire and minimizes collective responsibility, eroding the small market-based economies that once provided stable and meaningful employment. Our ill health and growing discomfort are in step with these social trends" p. 37
"...the fear is that the financial dominance of the large multinational corporations will squeeze our local entrepreneurs, creating a lifestyle that depends on wage earnings from centralized 'industrial' conglomerates rather than from community-based economies. Because such centralized monopolies are faceless and anonymous, the argument goes, they are destructive of a civil society--defined as a stable human community based on collaboration and mutual caring--replacing it with the competitive law of the jungle, where the biggest and most powerful dominate. Individual cooperation and creativity--the foundation of artistic expression, craftsmanship, and local market-based economies--are devalued in favor of mass production, shifting the cultural emphasis away from individual preference toward what Alexis de Tocqueville described as 'an imperfect substitute' designed for a broad audience" p. 197.
"If as a culture America continues to reinforce self-interest at the expense of social reinvestment, then predictably our cultural-economic system will run away to greed" p. 234.
"Whereas democracy strives for one person--one vote, with globalization the operating reality has become one dollar---one vote" p. 194.
"Another consequence of the increasing consolidation of commerce and the destruction of small community-based markets is that the distribution of wealth in America is becoming badly skewed. This trend, and it shows little sign of abating, fosters envy, the debt accumulation, and the demand-driven work environments that fuel the discomforting frenzy experienced by many American families. The result--again predictable from knowledge of the dynamics of human behavior--is that the delicate balance between individual desire and social responsibility-- the bedrock of a healthy society--is increasingly threatened" p. 8.
"Wealth, in the migrant vision, although coveted and eagerly sought, brings only transient pleasure, for prosperity lies forever ahead, beyond the horizon. For those trapped in such addictive striving, more is never enough" p. 107.
September 17, 2008
Whybrow presents an interesting, thought provoking, plausible hypothesis about a combination of culture and physiology that promotes maniacal behavior but after clearly describing the ball he will carry he keeps on running and running with it...almost maniacally (sorry, I couldn't resist). The long drawn out example of "Peanut" and the table conversation with three other people left me yawning. It's as if Whybrow were dealing with a not-very-bright reader, leading them slowly along the path of explanation when his whole point could be clearly made in one chapter.
His writing style is very pleasant, I can well imagine him as an engaging and thoughtful man in conversation and as a psychiatrist speaking with empathy to a patient. For such a disturbing theory, the book is a comfortable read yet I kept asking myself - why is it necessary for someone to read a book like this? Leaving aside the causes for our frantic society, isn't it clear to us that we aren't doing ourselves any good in our frenzy?
We have worked ourselves into the present situation for which our physical evolution has not prepared us. Technology has left genetics far behind.
But doesn't common sense tell us that we are not in a healthy pursuit?
As Paul Simon sang:
Kid you better look around
How long you think that you can run that body down?
How many nights you think that you can do what you been doing?
Who you think you're foolin'?
There are contradictions to equating mania with the way we live. Is sitting in front of a TV for hours mania - or apathy? Is exercising to keep the body in good condition mania - or good sense, it could be one or the other.
I believe it is more a case of our being in a trance from which we cannot awaken than of our genes driving us to excess. It just might be that most people don't know what to do with themselves - they have no clear purpose in life so simply trudge from day to day heading to work, eating, flopping back. People who find a real self-fulfilling purpose in life have joy - THAT is the rarity. One could, I believe, as easily make the case for depression as mania and Whybrow does talk of manic/depressive behavior.
Perhaps this book is the kindly Dr. Whybrow's way of giving a slap to the face so we can say, "thanks, we needed that!"
His writing style is very pleasant, I can well imagine him as an engaging and thoughtful man in conversation and as a psychiatrist speaking with empathy to a patient. For such a disturbing theory, the book is a comfortable read yet I kept asking myself - why is it necessary for someone to read a book like this? Leaving aside the causes for our frantic society, isn't it clear to us that we aren't doing ourselves any good in our frenzy?
We have worked ourselves into the present situation for which our physical evolution has not prepared us. Technology has left genetics far behind.
But doesn't common sense tell us that we are not in a healthy pursuit?
As Paul Simon sang:
Kid you better look around
How long you think that you can run that body down?
How many nights you think that you can do what you been doing?
Who you think you're foolin'?
There are contradictions to equating mania with the way we live. Is sitting in front of a TV for hours mania - or apathy? Is exercising to keep the body in good condition mania - or good sense, it could be one or the other.
I believe it is more a case of our being in a trance from which we cannot awaken than of our genes driving us to excess. It just might be that most people don't know what to do with themselves - they have no clear purpose in life so simply trudge from day to day heading to work, eating, flopping back. People who find a real self-fulfilling purpose in life have joy - THAT is the rarity. One could, I believe, as easily make the case for depression as mania and Whybrow does talk of manic/depressive behavior.
Perhaps this book is the kindly Dr. Whybrow's way of giving a slap to the face so we can say, "thanks, we needed that!"
September 23, 2022
While I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I don't know if I am the person who needed to read it. I already know that humans haven't evolved to live in the levels of affluence and abundance that we have in America today. I already know that late-stage capitalism and the endless accumulation of material wealth don't make us happy (in fact, they're starting to do the opposite), and that the answer to our collective societal anxiety and stress and depression lies in returning to a simpler life and rebuilding the smaller communities that globalization and mega-corporations have stolen from us. I was already aware of all of these things.
But if you are not aware of any of these things--if you feel like you're stressed out, working too hard, never have time for kids or even for yourself--then maybe this book can help remind you what's most important. Maybe it can help explain how we got to where we are as a society, and how we can, both as a society and as individuals, get back to a path that will actually bring us joy.
But if you are not aware of any of these things--if you feel like you're stressed out, working too hard, never have time for kids or even for yourself--then maybe this book can help remind you what's most important. Maybe it can help explain how we got to where we are as a society, and how we can, both as a society and as individuals, get back to a path that will actually bring us joy.
October 20, 2026
In American Mania, Whybrow examines the nature of the growing American lifestyle of technological and economic indulgence along the backdrop of a migrant mindset and a "Mania" over wanting more. He discusses the breakdown of community and cultural norms which are creating a more isolated populace that searches for happiness in luxury acquisitions but is losing its community connections and basic principles that Adam Smith thought that Capitalism would provide. Whybrow's book here in an interesting moment, written in 2005 he seems to anticipate that *something* is coming, not knowing that the Great Recession was on the horizon in 2008 or the way the digital landscape of smart phones, social media, and the continued rise of megacorporations and billionaires leveraging every available nickel out of an audience seeking that happiness within our population. Some interesting points to think about, the overall argument of the book provides food for thought despite several sections that felt too long-winded for the point Whybrow was making at any particular moment.
December 23, 2022
I was unable to finish this book. I was expecting someone versed in neuroscience to actually at least mention research, but there was precious little. After three chapters, my conclusion is that it took him three chapters to say what could have been said in three pages. In school, this kind of approach would have gotten me a solid C+ with an admonition to stop trying to pad the length of my work.
Not only that, but his points - while in all likelihood accurate - aren't of particular use. It is entirely possible that later in the book he talks about specific remedies, but I am unable to wade through what it might take to get there, especially given the likelihood that his remedies are described in equally voluminous chapters.
Some people may find his writing style appealing, and certainly if I were to judge each paragraph on the technical quality of the writing, it is solid. But those who seek a direct and concise approache to this topic should probably look elsewhere.
Not only that, but his points - while in all likelihood accurate - aren't of particular use. It is entirely possible that later in the book he talks about specific remedies, but I am unable to wade through what it might take to get there, especially given the likelihood that his remedies are described in equally voluminous chapters.
Some people may find his writing style appealing, and certainly if I were to judge each paragraph on the technical quality of the writing, it is solid. But those who seek a direct and concise approache to this topic should probably look elsewhere.
May 13, 2017
Good idea, poor execution
American mania explored an interesting idea, but the author spent more time soliloquizing than he did providing facts and evidence to back up his argument. He embellished heavily with hypotheticals and anecdotes (which were not supported by studies). The book didn't feel like it went anywhere, instead taking a meandering, directionless path.
American mania explored an interesting idea, but the author spent more time soliloquizing than he did providing facts and evidence to back up his argument. He embellished heavily with hypotheticals and anecdotes (which were not supported by studies). The book didn't feel like it went anywhere, instead taking a meandering, directionless path.
October 21, 2019
I cannot recommend this book enough. It explains so much about the (American) human condition - with science to back it up. I'm sure there are other, more extensive reviews, so check those out. I believe it may be out of print, so it might be a challenge to find a copy.
May 19, 2023
idea: check and balances needed for current laissez faire economy
Interesting Diagnosis of American society shortcomings and Recommendation on how to make it focus on community hence less impersonal and more beneficial to the community
Interesting Diagnosis of American society shortcomings and Recommendation on how to make it focus on community hence less impersonal and more beneficial to the community
October 19, 2026
This book has some good nuggets. I would be interested to see an update version and it was written 20 years ago.
The flow seemed a little off and challenging to follow but could still be worth a read.
The flow seemed a little off and challenging to follow but could still be worth a read.
February 19, 2021
Talks about how modern stresses are conflicting with our psyche. His main point is that we evolved to thrive in times of famine, not feast, and that overloading our senses with success is bad for us.
November 29, 2022
tbh only read the first & last chapter because i already knew most of what he was talking about but the chapters i did read were good ones
August 2, 2008
Unlike many books that simply tell us what we already know: that we are too materialistic, too stressed out, need to slow down and focus on "the moment," etc., this book goes a bit further. By using the author's insights as a psychiatrist, the book presents a case of modern day America - a nation of immigrants - who are exhibiting a case of modern day manic behavior. Whybrow then combines the insights of Adam Smith, the Scottish economist wrongly believed to be an advocate of unbridled greed and selfishness, and Charles Darwin, to present a scientific and economic view of our current condition. He makes the case that we are simply not wired to deal with our current day environment. This "mismatch" between our genes and our environment is making us unhappy, stressed out, and manifests itself in manic behavior, obesity, diabetes, ADHD, etc. Not just simply another slam at our consumer society, but a grounded, rational, scientific and humane analysis of America and its compulsive unhappiness and addictive behaviors. Good reading!
June 2, 2016
The author examines the relationship between neurochemistry and evolution in a world of scarcity with its impact on people living in a society in which the market system has provided bounty. How do the mechanisms of pleasure and desire cope with a world in which scarcity is no longer the rule? He also looks at the neurotransmitters that lead to risk-seeking behavior. It is based on this, that he suggests there are unique aspects to the American character.
Dr. Whybrow also refers extensively to the work of Adam Smith: not so much "The Wealth of Nations" as "A Theory of Moral Sentiments."
Dr. Whybrow also refers extensively to the work of Adam Smith: not so much "The Wealth of Nations" as "A Theory of Moral Sentiments."
July 31, 2011
I found this book on a blurb on a previous book I read. It was a little dated and kind of floundered, in my opinion. It didn't have direction or wrap up to a main topic. Yes, we are a gluttonous society. Tell me something I don't know. Yes, it would be nice to go back to a simpler time (trust me, I am like the least tech forward person my age) but it ain't happening. A decent research book, but brought nothing new to the table.
December 21, 2012
Would have made a great long essay. Too repetitive as a book. Though does have some thought provoking ideas like, maybe the problem isn't capitalism, per se; it's our own biology and behaviors that can't adapt quickly enough to deal w/ affluence and abundance. and so we need to be rational to adapt. Also, that happiness and pleasure are not the same, and may be opposed. Again, nothing super new-feeling here, but well stated (though stated too many times, over and over).
November 26, 2012
Thoughtful book about the intersection of social and genetic traits of Americans, as viewed by a psychiatrist who posits the theory that we are "wired" for mania. The author - himself an immigrant to the US - describes the paradoxes and perils that result from this self-selection, and suggests that our national affluence is also related to an epidemic of mental and physical health problems.
September 30, 2012
The question I am left with after reading this book is..."What causes a person, or a culture, to be joyful as well as accomplished?" The driven mania by itself doesn't lead to success, or the pursuit of happiness, or a sense of purpose.
July 17, 2008
Wow. A must-read about the current US mania for more-a psycho-biological, anthropological,historical look at the self-absorbed life-style, from politics to credit card debt.
June 13, 2010
Worthy insights about why we are who we are and how we are different than Europeans, among others.
February 8, 2012
Great thesis. He is right after all ... Slow down everybody.
August 1, 2012
This was a fair book, interesting take on why Americans in particular might be actually genetically predisposed to more risk taking behavior than people in other countries.
September 4, 2012
Well thought out, but a bit "academic" and not enough pages spend on solutions.
January 7, 2013
Enough is enough. But when you have too much, it's never enough.
December 26, 2014
A very scattered story,
August 29, 2016
This book can be summed in one sentence: more and more possessions don't make you happy, people make you happy. Not much of a read.
January 13, 2017
Easy to read, great dissection of the effects of the American 'pursuit of happiness' on our culture.
March 17, 2019
Really good food for thought.
Want to Read
May 20, 2019++++++======
Found in Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World by Michael T Lewis (last chapter 'Too Fat To Fly' about the USA. Michael Lewis
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