Status Anxiety

By Alain de Botton

“This book is thought-provoking and entertaining.”

‘Status Anxiety’ is a self-help book about how to deal with our universal fear of failure and how we might change this. ‘Status Anxiety’ is a hunger that can be beneficial or can cause sorrow. It will all depend on your own approach. The author defines ‘Status Anxiety’ as a ‘worry that we are in danger of failing to conform to the ideals of success laid down by our own society and that we may, as a result, be stripped of dignity and respect; a worry that we are currently occupying too modest a rung or are about to fall to a lower one’. In this book, five causes of status anxiety and five ways to overcome them are described. This is a book that is not only thought-provoking and entertaining, but genuinely helpful and wise as well.