Well Beings is a cultural history of the 1970s with an emphasis on alternative health, experimental well-being and inner space exploration.  In essence, Well Beings is a secret history of modern wellness that takes the reader on a strange trip from the panoramic vistas of the Esalen Institute to the vast darkness of the flotation tank by way of primal scream therapy, power seminars, encounter groups and the early days of mindfulness.  In parallel, Well Beings explores cults, brainwashing technologies, bad gurus as well as suburban sitcoms and the decade’s fiction, film and music.  A follow-up to The Bad Trip (2019), Well Beings interrogates both the declinist and narcissistic narratives of the 1970s and against the backdrop of the period’s economic, political and personal crises, it makes a case for the value of being well, seventies style.  If we are to recover from our own late-stage burnout, argues the book, we need to remember what wellness used to mean.

A cogent and provocative overview of the growth of the wellness movement in the 1970s that not only provides a comprehensive account of the cultural and political context for “wellness” but also pinpoints the origins of many of the attitudes that inform thinking about health and lifestyle today.
Judith Noble

Wide-ranging and written with flair, this is an eye-opening account of 1970s culture.
Douglas Field

Highly entertaining and enlightening.
Alastair J. Reid

Link to further information: https://www.iconbooks.com/ib-title/well-beings/

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