Botton, Alain de — STATUS ANXIETY.

London, Hamish Hamilton, 2004. 1st edition 314 pp. Pb . This is a book about an almost universal anxiety that rarely gets mentioned directly: an anxiety about what others think of us; about whether we’re judged a success or a failure, a winner or a loser. We care about our status for a simple reason: because most people tend to be nice to us according to the amount of status we have. With the help of philosophers, artists and writers, the book examines the origins of status anxiety (ranging from the consequences of the French Revolution to our secret dismay at the success of our friends), before revealing ingenious ways in which people have learnt to overcome their worries in their search for happiness. condition as new