The Art of Failure: The Anti Self-Help Guide

What is success, and is it worth the sacrifice? A psychiatrist and philosopher searches for a better, freer way of living.

We spend our lives striving: for achievement, status, wealth, recognition, security. We devote our best years to getting ahead, often without asking what 'getting ahead' is for.

In the pursuit of success, we neglect friendship, love, contemplation, wonder, and freedom. We become accomplished, yet somehow diminished. We succeed in the eyes of the world, but fail in ways that are harder to name.

In The Art of Failure, psychiatrist and philosopher Neel Burton explores this tension at the heart of modern life. Drawing on psychology, philosophy, literature, and lived experience, he turns to questions we usually avoid rather than answer: fear and courage, madness and sanity, death and meaning, happiness and love.

What emerges is not a system or doctrine, but a slow unsettling of assumptions. The idea that success is always good begins to look less certain. The idea that failure is always bad begins to look less simple.

Wide-ranging, provocative, and quietly unsettling, The Art of Failure is not a guide to doing better. It is an invitation to wonder whether 'better' has been correctly defined.

For anyone who has ever suspected that achievement alone is not enough, this book offers a way of thinking that does not rush to consolation.

About the author

Dr Neel Burton FRSA is a psychiatrist and philosopher. He is a Fellow of Green-Templeton College in the University of Oxford, and the recipient of several book prizes. His work features regularly in the likes of Aeon and Psychology Today, and has been translated into several languages.

Editorial reviews

Brilliant. Neel Burton has already won several prizes … and this volume deserves another. —The British Medical Association Book Awards

A unique perspective…. Neel Burton delivers on the provocative and intriguing promise inherent in this work's title… —The BookLife Prize (Quarter-finalist)

In this eye-opening read, psychiatrist Neel Burton explains… that by redefining what it means to achieve, we can avoid failure and gain control over our lives. —BookBub (Featured New Release)

If you want to re-examine your life and goals and perhaps find deep happiness, this book can help you get there. —Tammy Ruggles for Readers' Favorite

A demanding, provocative and ultimately transformative read. Give it a try and see how you get on. —The International Review of Books

The Art of Failure struck a chord with me because artists, through their art, explore the same fears and problems that Burton does… But anyone from any background would learn a lot from this book. —Rod Judkins, artist, lecturer, and author of The Art of Creative Thinking

Contents

•Mania
•Freedom
•Fear
•Courage
•Death
•Values
•Kings
•Ghosts
•Madness
•Meaning
•Happiness
•Ataraxia
•Friendship
•Love

A book for anyone willing to reconsider what success has been asking of them.