An Army One Me Analysis

One can be happy because they won the lottery, or one can be happy simply because someone smiled at them. Happiness is not hard to acquire, but establishing a consistent and enduring happiness in one’s life is almost impossible if one does not have a strong mental foundation built by a sense of self-fulfillment and independence. Modern society openly ridicules any form of self-content. It is filled with ever-changing advertisements for new ways to become happy quickly. Modern society has essentially spread a narcotic-like addiction to fads; overloading our brain with spikes of serotonin then leaving us in a state of withdrawal. In this society, one is no longer allowed to simply achieve set goals and live the rest of their life in peace; they must evolve, or they will be left behind. Society power and influence is growing at such a rapid rate that there will be a point where no human

Begley argues that although everyone’s goal in life is to be happy, “too much happiness might not be such a good thing” (555). Begley believes that happiness is overrated and the media is forcing people to be happy against their will. For example, the media forces people to be happy against their will by advertising their self-help books, magazine articles and motivational speakers. The media also promotes the pharmaceutical companies that claim they are “working on a new drug to make [people] happier” (556). Begley also states that research has concluded “that being happier is not always better” and “the

Self-esteem is a highly valued attribute of human personality. However, it is less mercurial than the ups and downs associated with everyday mood changes. Due to the increasing population finding themselves within various cycles of diminishing self-worth, high self-esteem has become less common today than in the past. These cycles, the most prominent being the cycles of media, perfection, and abuse, continuously revolve around themselves and lower the esteem of those within them. The root of low self-esteem lies within reversible social and psychological cycles of cause and effect, and only with the breaking of these cycles can self-esteem be improved.

Most people face self esteem problems at different levels. At some point in life people face this problem without realizing it. In the essay The Trouble with Self-Esteem written by Lauren Slater starts of by demonstrating a test. Self esteem test that determines whether you have a high self-esteem or low self-esteem. The question to be answered however is; what is the value and meaning of self-esteem? The trouble with self-esteem is that not everyone approaches it properly, taking a test or doing research based of a certain group of people is not the way to do so.

It is commonly referred to as the West and has developed into a world superpower in a rather short amount of time. The U.S. is considered to be a valuable a culture because of how well-developed and advanced it became and its role in the world as a super power. Through technological and societal advancement, U.S. pharmaceutical corporations were able to discover a new mental issue known as depression and treat it with certain prescription pills, or SSRIs. The corporations believed that SSRIs worked with little to no scientific evidence to support the effects of the SSRIs, “there is currently no scientific consensus that depression is linked to serotonin deficiency or that SSRIs restore the brain’s balance” (Watters). However, the corporations were correct about how real this mental issue is. Japan’s and the U.S.’s perspective of depression

Brummelman, Thomaes, and Sedikides (2015) conducted a systematic review to define narcissism and self-esteem separately and stressed the idea they are not the same trait. Narcissism was defined as a feeling of superiority over others, while self-esteem was defined as feeling worthy, but not necessarily better than others (Brummelman et al., 2015). In another study by Campbell, Rudich, and Sedikides (2002) narcissists and high self-esteem individuals were shown to have positive, yet unique self-views. As supported by other research in the literature, this study found narcissists wished to be admired, while high self-esteem individuals wished to be popular and well-liked by others (Campbell, Rudich, & Sedikides, 2002). These findings suggested narcissism was not simply high self-esteem, as the two traits differ in their presentation. Individuals who are narcissistic often have a preoccupation with self-appearance and vanity, which may be a result of low self-esteem (Lipowska & Lipowski,

People’s self-esteem either high or low is shaped by their life experiences. I believe a person’s self-esteem begins to take shape at an early age, with their parents being a major influence. Kind, positive, knowledgeable and caring parents help children create a positive self-image. Parents who do not feel good about themselves or others, sometimes take it out on their childern by belittling them or discouraging them. This leads the child down a path of self-doubt and eventually given the right circumstances a lower self-esteem.

Recent studies compared teenagers from past generations to those of recent generations and the findings suggest that there is in fact a rise in narcissism among the adolescence in today society. However, what is behind this rising trend? According to some, they believe it can be attributed to the ever-connected world we live. Then there are others who theorize the coddling of the latest generations is perhaps the reason behind the increase of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Whatever the cause these cohorts and their offspring are in fact appearing more self-absorbed, remorseless and narcissistic then ever before.

Low self-esteem has been an issues with many people since before the 1970’s. This issue has gradually picked up since the 70’s and has progressed 37% in the last 200

Everyone enjoys happiness. Sure, we exude it a multitude of ways, but overall, everyone loves to be happy. For the majority of our world’s past, people have experienced this emotion through doing activities that make them happy, such as watching a comedy show, exercising, or listening to music. In the more recent decades, however, “happiness pills”, more commonly known as “antidepressants”, have been the substitute for how to feel this emotion. They are prescribed to patients who have been diagnosed with depression in hopes that taking the pill will stop the depression and fill the mind with feelings related to positivity. What researchers have begun to notice though is that sometimes it’s more in the patients head than they think. Because of this observation, placebo pills were introduced as a way to distinguish if antidepressants are truly beneficial for a patient or if the power of positive thinking is enough. One article titled, “Prescriptions for Happiness”, uses the question, “how much greater is the recovery of those taking an active drug as compared to those taking the inactive placebo” as a thesis for their research, and in doing so, they make a few surprising observations.

The mind is a very powerful tool, yet we are able to be manipulated by what we see as well as manipulate others. If we get to analyze a person and know his strength and weaknesses, eventually we will be able to have control over them or persuade them to do as we say. The cadets at The Citadel, are described to be the leaders who are training the knobs, freshman, to be “real men” who are seen to be women, in Susan Faludi’s essay “The Naked Citadel”. Jean Twenge talks about how she explores the evolving idea of “self” and how self-esteem is to be questioned to determine if it is healthy or not. Along with bringing up the idea about how narcissistic people are not healthy for the environment or community. Twenge’s idea about “self” and narcissism

Self esteem is how an individual evaluates their worth as a person. It is not a person’s talents or abilities or how they are seen by others It is seen as the feeling of not being good enough. However, that does not mean people with high self esteem view themselves as

Ethan Watters’s Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche explores there reality of mental illness. The chapter “The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan” discusses the relationship between “scientific” notion and culturally accepted norms. Western pharmaceutical companies rushed to Japan to tap into a new lucrative market. In the process, scientific fact was often brushed to the side in order to make the largest profit. Through the introduction of scientific research regarding the correlation between SSRIs and depression, the West culturally imperialized Japan in order to make a profit.

The culture of narcissism was widely recognised as a socio-cultural critique of American society when published in 1979. Written by Christopher Lasch, the book analyzes a social phenomenon identified by Christopher Lasch as ‘cultural narcissism’, a process by which certain attributes of the pathological branch of narcissism (Bocock, 2002) become societal characteristics (Lasch, 1991). This review will be analyzing the relevance of the book within wider sociological debate. I will argue that although the book identifies a recognisable social trend it fails to deomonstrate a specific cause or reason for that trend. The

In Gary Greenberg's Manufacturing Depression: The Secret History of a Modern Disease, he takes an in depth look at the history behind depression, antidepressants, and how we have come to recognize and accept depression as a biochemical disease. When analyzing this book we can see that depression itself, whether it be a disease that is biochemically manifested or not, is deeply integrated into our society in a variety of ways as many aspects of society associated with depression have specific functions that are integral for society to function properly as a whole.