The best American essays 2012 / edited with an introduction by David Brooks ; Robert Atwan, series editor.

The foul reign of "self-reliance" / Benjamin Anastas -- The crazy state of psychiatry / Marcia Angell -- You owe me / Miah Arnold -- Edward Hopper and the geometry of despair / Geoffrey Bent -- A beauty / Robert Boyers -- The good short life / Dudley Clendinen -- Vanishing act / Paul Collins -- Insatiable / Mark Doty -- Who are you and what are you doing here? / Mark Edmundson -- Duh, bor-ing / Joseph Epstein -- Farther away / Jonathan Franzen -- Creation myth / Malcolm Gladwell -- Dr. Don / Peter Hessler -- Objects of affection / Ewa Hryniewicz-Yarbrough -- Getting schooled / Garret Keizer -- My father/my husband / David J. Lawless -- The accidental universe / Alan Lightman -- The bitch is back / Sandra Tsing Loh -- How doctors die / Ken Murray -- Other women / Francine Prose -- Humanism / Richard Sennett -- Killing my body to save my mind / Lauren Slater -- Outlaw / Jose Antonio Vargas -- Paper tigers / Wesley Yang.