{"title":"Books by Renata Salecl","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780415312769","title":"On Anxiety","description":"We frequently hear that we live in an age of anxiety, from 'therapy culture', the Atkins diet and child anti-depressants to gun culture and weapons of mass destruction. While Hollywood regularly cashes in on teenage anxiety through its \u003cem\u003eScream\u003c\/em\u003e franchise, pharmaceutical companies churn out new drugs such as Paxil to combat newly diagnosed anxieties.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eOn Anxiety\u003c\/em\u003e takes a fascinating, psychological plunge behind the scenes of our panic stricken culture and into anxious minds, asking who and what is responsible. Putting anxiety on the couch, Renata Salecl asks some much-needed questions: Is anxiety about the absence of authority or too much of it? Do the media report anxiety or create it? Are drugs a cure for anxiety or its cause? Is anxiety about being yourself or someone else, and is anxiety really the ultimate obstacle to happiness? \u003cbr\u003eDrawing on vivid examples from films such as the \u003cem\u003eX Files\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eCyrano de Bergerac\u003c\/em\u003e, drugs used on soldiers to combat anxiety, the anxieties of love and motherhood, and fake Holocaust memoirs, Renata Salecl argues that what really produces anxiety is the attempt to get rid of it. \u003cbr\u003eErudite and compelling, \u003cem\u003eOn Anxiety\u003c\/em\u003e is essential reading for anyone interested in philosophy, psychology and the cultural phenomenon of anxiety today.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56288861192565,"sku":"9780415312769","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780415312769_722dc800-2220-44ba-a8db-8f28d7150223.jpg?v=1786013738"},{"product_id":"9780691195605","title":"A Passion for Ignorance – What We Choose Not to Know and Why","description":"An original and provocative exploration of our capacity to ignore what is inconvenient or traumaticIgnorance, whether passive or active, conscious or unconscious, has always been a part of the human condition, Renata Salecl argues. What has changed in our post-truth, postindustrial world is that we often feel overwhelmed by the constant flood of information and misinformation. It sometimes seems impossible to differentiate between truth and falsehood and, as a result, there has been a backlash against the idea of expertise, and a rise in the number of people actively choosing not to know. The dangers of this are obvious, but Salecl challenges our assumptions, arguing that there may also be a positive side to ignorance, and that by addressing the role of ignorance in society, we may also be able to reclaim the role of knowledge.   Drawing on philosophy, social and psychoanalytic theory, popular culture, and her own experience, Salecl explores how the passion for ignorance plays out in many different aspects of life today, from love, illness, trauma, and the fear of failure to genetics, forensic science, big data, and the incel movement—and she concludes that ignorance is a complex phenomenon that can, on occasion, benefit individuals and society as a whole.   The result is a fascinating investigation of how the knowledge economy became an ignorance economy, what it means for us, and what it tells us about the world today.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56293677498741,"sku":"9780691195605","price":22.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780691195605_7794a38f-3637-4317-b1bb-bae496ced247.jpg?v=1786015150"},{"product_id":"9781846681868","title":"The Tyranny of Choice","description":"We are encouraged from all sides to view our lives as being full of choices. Like the products on a supermarket shelf, our careers, our relationships, our bodies, our very identities seem to be there for the choosing. But paradoxically this seeming freedom to choose can create extreme anxiety, and feelings of inadequacy and guilt. The Tyranny of Choice explores how late capitalism's shrill exhortations to 'be oneself' can be a tyranny which only leads to ever-greater disquiet and how insistence on choice being a purely individual matter prevents social change.With wisdom, humour and sensitivity, Renata Salecl examines the complexity of the essential human capacity to choose which has become mired in consumerist ironies.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308158562677,"sku":"9781846681868","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781846681868_337156cc-bd97-4083-821d-b89f3c338501.jpg?v=1786029746"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-renata-salecl.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}