Crazy Like Us cover art

Crazy Like Us

The Globalization of the American Psyche

 Preview
Try for $0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo + applicable taxes after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Crazy Like Us

Written by: Ethan Watters
Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
Try for $0.00

$14.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $37.04

Buy Now for $37.04

About this listen

It is well known that American culture is a dominant force at home and abroad; our exportation of everything from movies to junk food is a well-documented phenomenon. But is it possible that America's most troubling impact on the globalizing world has yet to be accounted for?

In Crazy Like Us, Ethan Watters reveals that the most devastating consequence of the spread of American culture has not been our golden arches or our bomb craters but our bulldozing of the human psyche itself: We are in the process of homogenizing the way the world goes mad.

America has been the world leader in generating new mental health treatments and modern theories of the human psyche. We export our psychopharmaceuticals packaged with the certainty that our biomedical knowledge will relieve the suffering and stigma of mental illness. We categorize disorders, thereby defining mental illness and health, and then parade these seemingly scientific certainties in front of the world. The blowback from these efforts is just now coming to light: It turns out that we have not only been changing the way the world talks about and treats mental illness - we have been changing the mental illnesses themselves.

©2010 Ethan Watters (P)2016 Tantor International Relations Mental Health Politics & Government Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Health Medicine Substance Abuse Yoga Anatomy

What the critics say

"Mental-health professionals should pay attention, and shrewd investors in pharmaceuticals may take interest in Watters's guess as to what disorder is likely to be big in the near future." ( Kirkus)
All stars
Most relevant  
Really great book. Narrator was great. Very interesting views on service in foreign countries and how aid can be harmful.

Worth the listen!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.