Deconstructing Scandinavia's "Achievement Generation": A Youth Mental Health Crisis?

What's new?. 8

How are we, really?. 9

The circle and the line. 11

Left and right 12

A diagnosis for us - a diagnosis for you. 13

The organization of this book. 14

Chapter 2 - The Pathologies of Modernity. 16

Nietzsche's last human. 17

Marx's alienation. 18

Durkheim's anomie. 18

Weber's iron cage. 19

Freud's discontentment within culture. 20

Adorno and Horkheimer's Enlightenment 22

Fromm's contentment in culture. 22

Rieff's therapeutic turn. 24

Erikson's identity crisis. 25

Mitscherlich's fatherlessness. 25..........................................

Conclusion: the tragic view of life. 26

Chapter 3 - The Pathologies of Late Modernity. 28

Beck's individualization. 29

Bauman's liquid modernity. 30

Rosa's social acceleration. 30

We are not thriving in late capitalism.. 32

Dufour's anthropological mutation. 33

The market as a new "God". 34

Between the guilt and the shame. 36

Failure to thrive in the new millennium.. 37

Conclusion. 41

Chapter 4 - Young, Privileged and Sick. 43

Illness experiences from life in late modernity. 45

The road to depression. 46

Self-realization's exhausting downside. 49

Optimization of the self. 51

Sweden: "You should really make the most of what you've received.". 53

Denmark: "You bloody well better perform well in this society, right?". 54

Where are we now?. 55

Somewhere over the rainbow.. 57

Conclusion. 58

Chapter 5 - Youth Under Pressure. 60

Suicide in Norway. 61

Suicide among young people. 61

Suicide internationally. 62

Suicide and psychological disorders. 63

Psychological disorders and complaints. 63

Psychological complaints in young people. 65

Why the increase in the reporting of psychological complaints?. 67

Which group of young people is hardest hit?. 68

Self-harm.. 70

Externalising behaviours. 71

The new digital existence. 73

Generational differences. 75

Conclusion. 78

Chapter 6 - Social Representations. 79

The achievement society. 79

The achievement generation. 85

Good girl 90

The good girl - a media history. 91

The good girl syndrome. 93

Conclusion. 101

Chapter 7 - Self-fulfilling Prophecies. 103

The problem without a name. 105

When the meritocracy came to Norway. 108

Finally somebody who understands us. 110

Proceed with caution. 113

Students provide a causal explanation. 113

Identifying with the research. 114

Talking about it 115

Conclusion. 116

Chapter 8 - The Paradox of Health. 117

Cultural Oblivion. 118

Scientific myths. 119

British resistance. 120

How does infection occur?. 122

The illness epidemic in Sweden. 125

Reaping as we sow.. 126

Professional whistleblowing systems. 129

Double reflexivity. 131

Conclusion. 134

Chapter 9 - Conclusion. 136

Summing up the book. 137

The answer is served. 138

The unbearable distortion of the media society. 139

Media favouritism.. 141

Skewed reporting. 141

The Reality 2.0. 143

The generation label 143

Wanted: "The stagnation generation". 144

Left-wing media?. 145

What must be done?. 146

A good enough society. 146

Different medicine. 147

The disadvantaged among us. 147

We need to talk about it 148

Life sucks. 149

Existentialism, where did you go in the midst of all the chaos?. 150

To the root of the problem.. 151

Silence is golden. 152

Nothing new under the sun - the youth of the past 153

Don't speak - the young people of today. 154

Generation Screwed - the young people of the future. 156

Conclusion: overloading "young people". 158

References. 161