A Therapeutic Journey: Lessons From The School of Life

Alain de Botton's redemptive volume charts a course from collapse to recovery with kindness, compassion and wisdom. "Alain de Botton, one of our era's most uncommonly perceptive, lyrical, and lucid existential contemplatives." — The Marginalian A Therapeutic Journey follows the arc from mental crisis and collapse, to convalescence and recovery. Written with kindness, knowledge and sympathy, it is both a practical guide and a source of consolation and companionship in what might be some of our loneliest, most anguished moments. In this blueprint for enduring a period of mental anguish, Alain de Botton explores how we can cope with a variety of forms of mental pain and illness, from the mild to the severe. It considers how and why we might become ill; how we can explain things to friends, family and colleagues; how we can find our ways towards recovery; and how we can build resilience, so as to live wisely alongside our difficulties. At heart this is a book about redemption—about regaining the thread of our lives, rediscovering meaning, and finding our way back to connection, warmth and joy. An invaluable literary companion through the loneliness of mental illness. We're surrounded by books telling us how to be rich, or thin. This book is different from other self-help books--because it teaches us to be nicer. Niceness might not have the immediate allure of money or fame, but who among us wouldn't like to be more patient, less irritable, or better listeners? With a gently philosophical tone, this book gives us practical advice on how to forgive, how to reassure, and how to be generous. Being nice isn't at all the same as being weak, or naive. In fact, niceness is one of the highest planes of human achievement--a super power, and a strength. Niceness deserves to be rediscovered and cultivated, and this book shows you how. Part of a new essential paperback series from The School of Life, covering a range of emotional lessons needed in order to lead fulfilled and happy lives "We exhaust ourselves and the planet in the search for very large pleasures, while all around us lies a wealth of small pleasures, which-if we only pay more attention-can bring us solace and joy on a daily basis. This is a guidebook to life's small pleasures: everything from the distinct delight of holding a child's hand to the joy of watching the evening sky. It's an intriguing, evocative collection that will heighten our senses and return us to the world with newfound excitement and enthusiasm."--Amazon.com