Wellness: Insecurity’s Profit Machine
Mentor: Ljiljana Coklin
Wellness: Insecurity’s Profit Machine is a research project that examines how the commercialization of wellness has negatively impacted 21st-century society. The Wellness industry, a multi-trillion-dollar entity with sectors ranging from beauty and weight-loss to mental wellness and wellness tourism, has co-opted concepts of self-care, monetized them, and turned massive profits. Using insights from my psychology education, experiences in mental health treatment, and research on the Wellness economy, I will examine the industry’s deceptive notions of wellness and evaluate the impact of its growing cultural relevance. In doing so, I intend to shed light on the darker potentials of an industry that is perceived as a virtuous force promising comfort, care, and control in our volatile contemporary times.
