The School of Life: An Emotional Education
by The School of Life, introduced by Alain de Botton
The organization's manifesto and curriculum: self-knowledge, emotional skepticism, childhood, relationships, work and culture, in short elegant essays. It argues that emotional intelligence should be taught like any subject, and it offers a humane, secular, slightly melancholy education in it.
Read it if…
you want a thoughtful, well-written primer on emotional life.
Skip it if…
you want exercises; it is essays.
Three things you will actually use
- We are all more disturbed than we admit; proceed gently.
- Self-knowledge is the beginning.
- Love is a skill, not an enthusiasm.
Do this first
Read the section on childhood and write how yours shaped one pattern you have now.
Our verdict
Elegant and humane.
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