Something must have changed in society. We weren’t always this worried. Not always caught up in disastrous scenarios in our minds. What is this nagging voice in our head? Why won’t it stop, and why are we so fixated on it?
In Why We Worry, Roland Paulsen paints a broad picture of the cultural variations and historical evolution of anxiety. Through this lens, he invites readers to explore the paradox of how material wealth has enriched our lives in every aspect except one: our mental well-being.
This book offers empirically grounded insights into the sociological underpinnings of issues relating to worry. As such, it is suitable for undergraduate students in psychology, sociology, and medicine – and anyone who has ever been trapped in rumination.
1. A Window onto Our Thoughts
PART 1. WORRY IN OUR TIME
2. How We Feel
3. The Nature of Worry
4. In Thought’s Clutches
PART 2. TRICKLES OF HISTORY
5. Time Horizons
6. Disenchantments
7. An Appendage of the Machine
8. The World as Risk
9. The Self as Risk
10. Self-Suspicions
PART 3. ACTION IN OUR TIME
11. Quieting Worry
12. Living with Worry
13. Beyond Treatment
Biography
Roland Paulsen is Associate Professor of Sociology at Lund University. His research focuses on medical sociology, cultural studies, and the sociology of work. The meaning of work, and also the meaninglessness of work, are the subjects of two of his books: Empty Labor: Idleness and Workplace Resistance (2014) and Return to Meaning: A Social Science with Something to Say (with Mats Alvesson and Yiannis Gabriel, 2017).
“Paulsen’s book is a fascinating and penetrating analysis of our late-modern anxieties when we are confronted with the basic uncontrollability of the world – and a passionate plea for regaining a robust trust in life that does not depend on control and domination.”
Hartmut Rosa, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany
