Who Am I?: Psychological Exercises to Develop Self-understanding

by The School of Life, Alain de Botton (Editor)

Overview

An interactive guide to our complex and elusive inner selves.

One of the most difficult tasks we face as humans is figuring out who we are. "Describe yourself" can be a surprisingly difficult task. Sometimes, we need prompts and suggestions to engage and energize us.

With unusual, entertaining, and playful exercises, this journal is designed to help us tease out and organize who we are. With beautiful designs by Marcia Mihotich throughout and mini essays on topics like relationships and work, this book shows us how our complicated, beautiful, and sometimes painful experiences all contribute to the richness of who we are.

• UNCONVENTIONAL AND PROVOCATIVE QUESTIONS to prompt honest self-reflection.
• AN INTERACTIVE JOURNAL OF SELF DISCOVERY with space for written answers.
• FULL COLOR ILLUSTRATIONS THROUGHOUT
• A COLLECTION OF MINI ESSAYS on topics like relationships, work, and culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781912891085
Publisher:	The School of Life
Publication date:	08/04/2020
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	510,016
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

The School of Life is a global organization helping people lead more fulfilled lives. Through our range of books, gifts and stationery we aim to prompt more thoughtful natures and help everyone to find fulfillment.

The School of Life is a resource for exploring self-knowledge, relationships, work, socializing, finding calm, and enjoying culture through content, community, and conversation. You can find us online, in stores and in welcoming spaces around the world offering classes, events, and one-to-one therapy sessions.

The School of Life is a rapidly growing global brand, with over 7 million YouTube subscribers, 389,000 Facebook followers, 174,000 Instagram followers and 166,000 Twitter followers.

The School of Life Press brings together the thinking and ideas of the School of Life creative team under the direction of series editor, Alain de Botton. Their books share a coherent, curated message that speaks with one voice: calm, reassuring, and sane.

Read an Excerpt

3. Avoidant and anxious attachment

Psychologists like to divide us into ‘avoidant’ and ‘anxious’ kinds of lovers. An avoidant pattern of relating to lovers means that, when there is difficulty, we grow cold and distant, and deny our need for anyone. We desperately want to be reassured but feel so anxious that we may be unwanted, we disguise our need behind a façade of indifference. At the precise moment when we want to be close, we say we’re busy, we pretend our thoughts are elsewhere, we get sarcastic and dry; we imply that a need for reassurance would be the last thing on our minds. We might even have an affair, the ultimate face-saving attempt to be distant – and often a perverse attempt to assert that we don’t require a partner’s love (that we have been too reserved to ask for).

For its part, anxious attachment is a pattern of relating to lovers whereby, when there is difficulty, we grow officious, procedural and controlling over small matters of domestic routine. We feel our partners are escaping us emotionally, but rather than admitting our sense of loss, we respond by trying to pin them down administratively. We get unduly cross that they are eight minutes late, we chastise them heavily for not having done certain chores, we ask them strictly if they’ve completed a task they had agreed vaguely to undertake. All this rather than admit the truth: ‘I’m worried that I don’t matter to you…’.

Are you more anxious or more avoidant in your attachment style?

Describe a recent episode of either type of attachment playing itself out.

How do you think you acquired yours?

Table of Contents

Psychology

Relationships

Sex

Other People

Work

Utopia

Culture

Sorrow & Compassion

Re-enchantment

Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

***What readers are saying***

"By far the most extraordinarily helpful journal, questions that are actually relevant to self discovery, exploration, and closure."

"This is even more interesting than I expected. I am very keen to think and answer a one more question every time I open it. And the idea from the end is really creative!"

"Another great interactive resource from School of Life to help identify and understand the mind’s perception of the reality."

From the Publisher