FORTHCOMING - Cultural Deceptions

By Dr Ashley Humphrey

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Are you struggling to find mental wellbeing in today’s fast-changing world?

You are not alone.

Poor mental health is amongst the highest burden of disease faced by the developed world today. And it has been increasing at a greater rate in high-income developed cultures than lower-income countries.

Yet to date, the battle to improve our mental health has focused strongly on medical interventions for individuals, with the broader influence of cultural factors largely ignored.

In Cultural Deceptions, part cultural criticism, part practical guide, popular Australian social researcher, Dr Ashley Humphrey shows us how modern values and ideals are having an adverse effect on society’s psychological wellbeing. Our psychological health and our culture synergistically mesh, often with unfavourable outcomes, deceiving ourselves with the idea that success in life comes from competitiveness, materialism and self-centered emotionality.

So how do we help ourselves to better mental health?

Read this book and discover tools derived from recent psychological research that can help people reconnect to forms of community and meaning beyond obsessive concerns with material wellbeing and ambitions of the self. Discover moments of revelation and self-reflection around what matters most to you, and how to find what truly makes for a good life.

About the Author

Ashley Humphreys (www.ashleyhumphrey.com) completed his PhD in Psychology at Monash University, Melbourne, where he current works as a Lecturer and Research Psychologist. The recipient of several awards for his teaching, research and charity work, Ashley serves as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Sociology, and is a regular expert wellbeing commentator on commercial television and radio stations across the country. He has published extensively in Scientific Journals, and his research into cultural influences on mental health has featured in major newspapers, as well as in popular press outlets including the Conversation, World Economic Forum, Men’s Health and the Economic Times. Ashley is also the founder of the JET Network (www.jetnetwork.com.au), an organisation that has helped tens of thousands of Australian young people build positive mental health outcomes in their lives. This is his first book.