quiet-the-power-of-introverts-in-a-world-that-cant-stop-talking-susan-cain

more than ever on the ability to meet
the demands of the Culture of Personality.
The pressure to entertain, to sell
ourselves, and never to be visibly
anxious keeps ratcheting up. The number
of Americans who considered themselves
shy increased from 40 percent in
the 1970s to 50 percent in the 1990s,
probably because we measured
ourselves against ever higher standards
of fearless self-presentation. “Social
anxiety disorder”—which essentially
means pathological shyness—is now
thought to afflict nearly one in five of
us. The most recent version of the Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV),
the psychiatrist’s bible of mental disorders,
considers the fear of public
speaking to be a pathology—not an annoyance,
not a disadvantage, but a disease—if
it interferes with the sufferer’s
job performance. “It’s not enough,” one
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