The Wellness Syndrome summary

Many people consider the pursuit of wellness a lifelong goal. To stay on track, these people avoid “unhealthy” influences, whether it be eating fatty pork chops or smoking cigarettes. They head to a Pilates class daily and occasionally enjoy some pampering at a fancy spa.

Eating correctly and exercising daily – what’s wrong with that?

Well, we first have to consider that “wellness” means more than exercising regularly and eating healthily. Wellness is an ideology; it holds that a healthy body is a necessary state for success and happiness in life.

Thinking this way marks a significant societal change. If you cared about your looks and health decades ago, people would think you vain and superficial. Today, the cult of wellness stresses that to be successful in everything in life, you need a fat-free, fit body and a clear, capable state of mind.

The problem is that adhering to such an ideology compulsively can limit your freedom of thought, causing you to miss important experiences.

The wellness doctrine is based on a narrow way of thinking that revolves exclusively around health while forbidding many activities such as drinking or taking recreational drugs. Such activities society used to view as not only enjoyable but also important rites of passage.

Many American universities now require students to sign a wellness contract upon enrollment. Students pledge to abstain from alcohol and drugs and devote themselves to living healthily.

Yet these straight-edge students will undoubtedly miss out on youthful experiences that once inspired society’s greatest thinkers. French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre famously indulged in coffee, cigarettes and alcohol while at school, his circle of friends enjoying discussions of absurdity and revolution.

Such experiences were mind-expanding! Contemporary students of philosophy pushed to follow the tenets of wellness might miss out.