Better than Well - American Medicine Meets the American Dream

A fascinating and insightful book about the relationship between self-improvement and modern enhancement techologies that include not just surgical jobs but also Ritalin and Viagra. Elliott sees this as an obsessive pursuit of happiness and links this to the quest for a more authentic self, both of which form part of the original American Dream: 'we need to understand ourselves as inheritors of a cultural tradition in which the significance of life has become deeply bound up with self-fulfilment'. Elliot unravels the relationship between enhancement technologies, lifestyle and identity in a masterly fashion.