Better than well : American medicine meets the American dream

There is nothing novel about Americans' anxiously enthusiastic consumption of "enhancement technologies" - their use of Prozac and Viagra, cosmetic surgery and botox injections - except the names of the drugs and the procedures.

With the success of each new medical technology, a familiar pattern of response emerges: public hand-wringing, an occasional congressional hearing, calls for self-reliance.

This book offers a diagnosis rather than an argument.

It asks why Americans feel uneasy about these drugs, procedures and therapies even while they embrace them.

It looks at where the line is drawn between self and society, and discusses why Americans seek self-realization in ways so heavily influenced by cultural conformity.

Tracing the fault line in Americans' obsessive pursuit of happiness, this book is an exploration of the paradoxes of self-improvement.