Price: $4.04
(as of Nov 09, 2021 06:30:14 UTC – Details)

From the Publisher

A comprehensive, sympathetic, and thought-provoking guide…

—The British Journal of Psychiatry

Things are not all they seem…

This is a book about how depression can have benefits as well as costs, and how to reap those benefits while making yourself feel better—better, in fact, than ever before.

Happiness is good for the body, but it is grief which develops the strengths of the mind. —Marcel Proust

Healing is not the same as curing. Curing implies returning to the status quo, whereas healing implies moving beyond it. This book’s purpose is not merely to make you feel better, but better than ever before, by increasing your resilience and openness to life.

You have, in some sense, embarked on the mythical hero’s journey. Despite being ill-fated, despite starting out as a victim and underdog, the hero is able to rise up to life and experience it in its fullness, rather than merely suffer or survive it and occasionally drink its dregs like so many of us do.

In myth, the hero has to travel through hell, or deep into the forest or labyrinth, before slaying the monster and re-emerging as a hero. If your depression is the journey through the Inferno, then let this book be your guiding Virgil. If your depression is the descent into the Cretan labyrinth, then let this book be Ariadne’s ball of red thread.

There is much more to mental health than the mere absence of mental disorder. Today, I write about all the things that I was never taught.

The Ataraxia Series

Burton guides the reader to unlearn, rediscover, and return to wholeness. It is a journey out of Plato’s cave… —The International Review of Books

Burton’s writing blends deep knowledge of his subject with lively anecdote and a genuine concern for how we might draw on the insights of psychology and philosophy to live a better life. —Gareth Southwell, philosopher and writer

The Meaning of Madness

Hide and Seek

Heaven and Hell

For Better For Worse

Hypersanity

The Art of Failure

Neel Burton

Multi award-winning non-fiction author

Dr Neel Burton FRSA is a psychiatrist, philosopher, and wine-lover who lives and teaches in Oxford, England. He is a Fellow of Green-Templeton College in the University of Oxford, and the winner of the Society of Authors’ Richard Asher Prize, the British Medical Association’s Young Authors’ Award, and the Medical Journalists’ Association Open Book Award. His work regularly features in the likes of Aeon and Psychology Today and has been translated into several languages.

His books include:

The Meaning of Madness

Hide and Seek: The Psychology of Self-Deception

Heaven and Hell: The Psychology of the Emotions

For Better For Worse: Essays on Sex, Love, Marriage, and More

Hypersanity: Thinking Beyond Thinking

The Art of Failure: The Anti Self-Help Guide

The Meaning of Myth: With 12 Greek Myths Retold and Interpreted by a Psychiatrist

Growing from Depression: A Gentle Self-Help Guide, and more…

A few words on the book cover

The black circle is an ensō, or Zen circular form.

Building on the techniques and principles of Japanese calligraphy, the ensō is usually drawn in a single brushstroke, and comes to represent its creator’s character and disposition at that particular moment in time.

The circle may be open or closed. A closed circle suggests completeness, perfection, the universe, the circle of life, eternity, strength, and enlightenment. But an open circle also allows for movement and development, and the heightened beauty that is born out of imperfection. In the West, we search for salvation in perfection, in something like Plato’s ideal forms, but in the East, it is on imperfection that we would rather rest our eyes and minds.

There is an old Japanese story about the Zen tea master Sen no Rikyu. One day, a Sakai tea man invited Rikyu to a tea ceremony in the hope of impressing him with an antique tea jar from China. But despite being served from the jar, Rikyu did not seem to notice it, commenting instead on the simple scenery outside the tea hut. When Rikyu left, the trader smashed the precious jar to pieces and withdrew in anger.

Luckily, not all was lost. One of the other guests gathered the pieces and glued them together with golden lacquer.

When he next came, Rikyu recognized the mended jar. ‘Ah’ he said, ‘now it is magnificent!’

People who have suffered from depression and recovered often make for better company than those who have never looked inside.

ASIN‏:‎B096PNMSHJ
Publisher‏:‎Acheron Press; 3rd edition (July 5, 2021)
Publication date‏:‎July 5, 2021
Language‏:‎English
File size‏:‎8056 KB
Simultaneous device usage‏:‎Unlimited
Text-to-Speech‏:‎Enabled
Screen Reader‏:‎Supported
Enhanced typesetting‏:‎Enabled
X-Ray‏:‎Enabled
Word Wise‏:‎Enabled
Print length‏:‎224 pages
Page numbers source ISBN‏:‎1913260186
Lending‏:‎Enabled

Related Posts

I Promise

Price: $4.04(as of Nov 09, 2021 06:30:14 UTC - Details) An Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller! An Instant Indie Bestseller! *An Amazon Best Book Read more

Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man

Price: $4.04(as of Nov 09, 2021 06:30:14 UTC - Details) INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERAn urgent primer on race and racism, from the Read more

Full, Full, Full of Love

Price: $4.04(as of Nov 09, 2021 06:30:14 UTC - Details) Warm illustrations spice up this rhythmical ode to the joys of family and Read more

The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl

Price: $4.04(as of Nov 09, 2021 06:30:14 UTC - Details) In the best-selling tradition of Sloan Crosley's I Was Told There'd Be Cake Read more

Lola at the Library (Lola Reads)

Price: $4.04(as of Nov 09, 2021 06:30:14 UTC - Details) Learn about the library, checking out books, and story time with Lola.  Every Read more

Deacon King Kong: A Novel

Price: $4.04(as of Nov 09, 2021 06:30:14 UTC - Details) One of Barack Obama's "Favorite Books of the Year"Oprah's Book Club PickNamed one Read more

Dancing in the Wings

Price: $4.04(as of Nov 09, 2021 06:30:14 UTC - Details) Sassy is a long-legged girl who always has something to say. She wants Read more

Black People Invented Everything: The Deep History of Indigenous Creativity

Price: $4.04(as of Nov 09, 2021 06:30:14 UTC - Details) Who invented the traffic light? What about transportation itself? Farming? Art? Modern chemistry? Read more

Hair Love

Price: $4.04(as of Nov 09, 2021 06:30:14 UTC - Details) "I love that Hair Love is highlighting the relationship between a Black father Read more

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Price: $4.04(as of Nov 09, 2021 06:30:14 UTC - Details) Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as Read more

I Am Enough

Price: $4.04(as of Nov 09, 2021 06:30:14 UTC - Details) A #1 New York Times bestseller and Goodreads Choice Awards picture book winner! This is Read more

Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves

Price: $4.04(as of Nov 09, 2021 06:30:14 UTC - Details) NOMINATED FOR AN NAACP IMAGE AWARD • An inspiring collection of essays by black Read more