The concept of the normal/average person is the foundation of our healthcare, education, psychology, and of how we think of ourselves. It is wrong. I summarize the blindingly bad math behind it and some of T.Rose's "The End of Average", a very readable account its eugenics pedigree.

Eva Illouz' analysis of how our private joys and sorrows are shared economic and political stamps on our lives is essential for understanding emotions in their context.

"Western scientists have created an artifact: in our efforts to study emotions in an elemental way, we have created an experimental method that has strong but hidden context effects. It produces a psychological model that is intellectually pleasing but it has little to do with reality." - Feldman Barret et al.