How to Stay Sane
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3.8 • 22 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
An Economist Best Book of the Year
Everyone accepts the importance of physical health; isn't it just as important to aim for the mental equivalent? Philippa Perry has come to the rescue with How to Stay Sane -- a maintenance manual for the mind.
Years of working as a psychotherapist showed Philippa Perry what approaches produced positive change in her clients and how best to maintain good mental health. In How to Stay Sane, she has taken these principles and applied them to self-help. Using ideas from neuroscience and sound psychological theory, she shows us how to better understand ourselves. Her idea is that if we know how our minds form and develop, we are less at the mercy of unknown unconscious processes. In this way, we can learn to be the master of our feelings and not their slave.
This is a smart, pithy, readable book that everyone with even a passing interest in their psychological health will find useful.
The School of Life is dedicated to exploring life's big questions in highly-portable paperbacks, featuring French flaps and deckle edges, that the New York Times calls "damnably cute." We don't have all the answers, but we will direct you towards a variety of useful ideas that are guaranteed to stimulate, provoke, and console.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lumping the insane into two broad groups those who "lurch from crisis to crisis" and those who "have got themselves into a rut and operate from a limited set of outdated, rigid responses " Perry (Couch Fiction) explains how to "stay on the path between those two extremes." Right off the bat, it's clear her intention is not to transform the clinically crazy into functioning members of society; rather, this brief book is aimed at everyday folks struggling to "remain stable and yet flexible, coherent and yet able to embrace complexity." Perry, a psychotherapist, explains that people who maintain sanity have changed in four areas: "self-observation," relationships with others, coping with stress, and telling stories. The author addresses each in as many chapters, wherein she discusses related topics as diverse as biology, learning styles, the effects of exercise, and a Wagner opera, as well as illustrative case studies. Folks seeking further guidance will find more than 30 pages of practical "exercises" , as well as a list of suggested reading. Though Perry's approach can sometimes be difficult to follow, her inviting tone (complemented by lighthearted illustrations throughout) and friendly prose make this an accessible addition to the School of Life publications. Illus.
Customer Reviews
I love the way it's written
The book offers great insight, into the mysterious of our mind. However, I don't think the book was long enough.