'Be the best you can be' urge self-help books and makeover TV shows, but what kind of self is imagined as needing a makeover and what kind of self is imagined as the happy result? Drawing on recent sociology and psychology, this book explores the function of slummy mummies, headless zombies and living autopsies to creating an idea of self.

Explores how the internet affects culture and social life, particularly the psychological, emotional and social cost of high-tech solitude. Arguing that the internet's widespread anonymity eliminates boundaries and encourages otherwise polite people to be downright abusive, this book discusses the half-fantasy, half-realism of online personae.

Focusing on post-Vietnam America, using perspectives from psychology, anthropology, and physiology, this book demonstrates the need for criticism to unpack the confusions in language and cultural fantasy that drive the nation's fascination with the berserk style.