NYT Review Of Books On Wellness

Thought provoking article in The New York Times called: Achieving Wellness, Whatever That Is. The article reviews two books which present opposing perspectives on managing one's health, which I'd summarize as 'worry about everything' vs. 'don't worry about too much'.

My favorite lines of the article, which I think speak more broadly to how people choose their media outlets....:
By now, it should be obvious why no one but me is likely to be reading both these books. You, reader, have undoubtedly already decided which author is a sage and which one a lunatic, which advice is sound, worthy of reading and re-reading, and which is simply misguided.

And that is the final thought-provoking lesson. Our health beliefs are so deeply ingrained that data, admonitions, guidelines and oceans of ink on reams of paper will seldom dissuade us from believing what we want to be true.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Thanks for the post and the link. Funny how I had my mind made up, just like the author thought her readers would. (Lump me in with being able to "cope with all these common physical problems without transforming oneself from person to patient." -- I think.)

Minor housekeeping: the article isn't from the NYT Book Review (nor the NY Review of Books), but from the NYT Health section, published on Tuesdays. There's always something there worth reading.
Aweber9 said…
Anonymous - re. your minor housekeeping point: you are very good at pointing out where my language isn't perfectly clear. I'm well aware of NYRB as well as the NYTBR and didn't mean to suggest the article came from either of them.

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