Affluenza is a virus.

A virus that is affecting each and every one of us; it could suck out every good and pure element in your life and replace it with evil that has the potential to leave you empty and distressed; and if you live in the Western world you probably have it without even realising it. 

Pretty bleak isn’t it? That’s where Oliver James comes in, a psychologist-come-journalist who is trying to stop us all from going to hell in a hand cart - by moving to Denmark of all places.

Affluenza on first impressions appears to tick all the right boxes for a modern pop-psychology hit, emblazoned on the front and back cover are quotes from respected broadcasters and then a not-so-subtle hint about its status as a Sunday Times bestseller, although you can’t really begrudge him that.

What you can begrudge is James’ very critical nature especially towards the English speaking world and its capitalist societies (or as he calls it, “selfish capitalism”). His target seems to be anyone who believes in the Yankee dollar.

This may all be in the name of helping others but to be consistently told from page one that you lead the ‘wrong’ life and have a high likelihood of suffering from a mental illness can become quite grating, even if he does leave the real soap box stuff to the end of the book.

It’s not that he doesn’t talk to those who appear to genuinely be suffering from living in this type of society, and these moments are when James shines. His writing style underpinned by his psychological know-how really engages and you begin to question what is actually wrong with these people and their reasons for being so controlled by money.

This, however always comes down to whether or not they are ‘happy’.

Such a subjective question will always result in mixed opinion but James’ insistence that they are not really happy comes across as arrogance. Or that James has decided they are unhappy and has assumed that their existence as a “selfish capitalist” must be the reason.

For those worrying about their status within the world, James offers ‘Vaccines’ to the virus throughout the second section of the book, in chapters which have that air of psychology/ self help and are titled with such statements as “Meet your child’s needs (not those of little adults)”.

This would also be a tad more helpful if he did not consistently offer up Scandinavia as a utopia solution to our problems. While Denmark may be a remarkable country - the figures consistently prove this - it is a way of life and an attitude that would struggle to take hold in England especially. Maybe this is what James is trying to tell us.

James obviously has a valid point, there is something wrong with the state of the English-speaking world and their obsession with celebrity, money and everything else, but surely the message of change could have been brought in a better way than standing on a soap box and telling everyone how fucked they are.