Oliver James

The School of Life

Happiness is a loaded term that means different things to different people. To some, it might mean life satisfaction, to others, a fleeting moment of joy. Rather than seeking to be happy, Oliver James encourages us to cultivate our emotional health. Outlining the five elements of good emotional health - insightfulness, a strong sense of self, fluid relationships, authenticity and playfulness in our approach to life - he offers strategies for optimizing each characteristic to live more fulfilling lives. Helping us to understand the impact our emotional baggage has on our daily interactions, he reveals how to overcome unhelpful patterns and become more self-aware - revitalizing our approach to life. One in the new series of books from The School of Life, launched January 2014: How to Age by Anne Karpf How to Develop Emotional Health by Oliver James How to Be Alone by Sara Maitland How to Deal with Adversity by Christopher Hamilton How to Think About Exercise by Damon Young How to Connect with Nature by Tristan Gooley

How to Develop Emotional Health

A new edition of the groundbreaking - and potentially life-changing - book that shows how our earliest experiences make us what we are.

How to Survive Family Life

They F*** You Up

There is currently an epidemic of 'affluenza' throughout the world - an obsessive, envious, keeping-up-with-the-Joneses - that has resulted in huge increases in depression and anxiety among millions. Over a nine-month period, bestselling author Oliver James travelled around the world to try and find out why. He discovered how, despite very different cultures and levels of wealth, affluenza is spreading. Cities he visited include Sydney, Singapore, Moscow, Copenhagen, New York and Shanghai, and in each place he interviewed several groups of people in the hope of finding out not only why this is happening, but also how one can increase the strength of one's emotional immune system. He asks: why do so many more people want what they haven't got and want to be someone they're not, despite being richer and freer from traditional restraints? And, in so doing, uncovers the answer to how to reconnect with what really matters and learn to value what you've already got. In other words, how to be successful and stay sane.

How to be Successful and Stay Sane

Affluenza

Argues that materialism and consumerism is a major cause of emotional distress in Western society, but governments at all levels can reverse this trend by practising "unselfish capitalism".

Origins of Affluenza

The Selfish Capitalist

How to Create Emotional Health is a guide to leading a more enjoyable and fulfilling life. Rather than seeking to be happy, Oliver James encourages the idea of wellbeing - a state in which we are self-aware, authentic, adaptable, vivacious and able to live in the moment. He shows that through self-reflection, we can develop insight and awareness of who we are and what we truly want and need. By paying special attention to the impact of childhood and past relationships, we can tackle insecurities and alter negative thought patterns, ultimately improving the way we function as adults. Key to this approach is the adoption of a more resilient and playful mind-set, one which allows us to learn from mistakes and bounce back in a healthy way. In this thought-provoking and uplifting guide, Oliver develops strategies for meeting the challenges of daily life, including practical advice for setting career goals, strengthening relationships and improving family cohesion. He offers vital steps towards insight, energy and the ultimate reward of complete emotional health.

IDementia is a little understood and currently incurable illness, but much can be done to maximise the quality of life for people with the condition. Contented Dementia - by clinical psychologist and bestselling author Oliver James - outlines a groundbreaking and practical method for managing dementia that will allow both sufferer and carer to maintain the highest possible quality of life, throughout every stage of the illness. For many years, attention has focused on the negative aspects of Alzheimer's. Accessible and sympathetic this unique handbook concentrates on what a person with dementia can do, rather than what they cannot. A person with dementia will experience random and increasingly frequent memory blanks relating to recent events. Feelings, however, remain intact, as do memories of past events and both can be used in a special way to substitute for more recent information that has been lost. The SPECAL method (Specialized Early Care for Alzheimer's) outlined in this book, and approved by the Royal College of Nursing and the Alzheimer's Society, works by creating links between past memories and the routine activities of daily life in the present. Drawing on real-life examples and user-friendly tried-and-tested methods, Contented Dementia provides essential information and guidance for carers, relatives and professionals and enables people with dementia to experience well-being 24 hours a day, every day, for life.

24-hour Wraparound Care for Lifelong Well-being

Contented Dementia

There is a prevailing myth - in both modern society and in modern science - that who we are is largely down to our genetic code. Most of us believe that our personalities, abilities and health are down to a combination of both our upbringing and our natural genetic makeup. Labels we are given as a child (of 'intelligent', 'slow' or 'shy') continue through to our adult years - often holding us back and stopping us from change. However, in this groundbreaking new book, Oliver James uncovers the truth about genetics: that our genes actually play very little part in shaping who we are. In fact, nearly all of the psychological differences between us are caused by our upbringing and environment, and in disease only a tiny 5-10 per centage of cases are caused by genes. Oliver James not only demonstrates how our past and present affect us and they way we behave, but shows how this opens us up for unexpected opportunities for change. This exciting new book will not only change the way you think about yourself and the people around you, but give you the fuel to change your personality and your life for the better.

Not in Your Genes

Birds of Berkeley

Como desenvolver a inteligência emocional

A fascinating expos� of office culture, in the style of the bestselling Affluenza, from popular psychologist Oliver James. The modern working world is a dangerous place, where game-playing, duplicity, and sheer malevolence are rife. Do talent and hard work count for nothing? Is politics everything? In this fascinating expos�, Oliver James reveals the murky underside of modern office life. With cutting-edge research and eye-opening interviews, he highlights the nasty practices that propel people to the top and shows how industries and cultures are fostering this behavior He then divulges strategies and techniques for not only surviving but thriving in these difficult environments. With the right mindset, you can distinguish and deal with toxic and overpromoted colleagues, charm your way through interviews, and use office politics to your advantage. Office Politics will overthrow your perceptions of office life and set you on a new path to success.

How to Thrive in a World of Lying, Backstabbing and Dirty Tricks

Office Politics

"Love Bombing" is a radical new method for resetting the emotional thermostats of troubled children and their parents, setting them on a much happier trajectory. It is simple to do, easily explained and works for both severe and mild problems from aged three to early teenage. Many, if not most, parents feel that their children may have missed out in some way during the early years. Offering a simple, relatively trouble-free self-help method for putting that right is what parents are waiting for. "This book is written in highly accessible language", assures Oliver James. "The method is explained as simply as possible, illustrated with cases". "Love Bombing is a very simple technique which helps most children from aged three to early teenage. Because so many parents are, or have had, periods of living very busy or miserable or complicated lives, most of us need to reconnect with our children from time to time. Love Bombing does the job," explains James.

Reset Your Child's Emotional Thermostat

Love Bombing

"Why has emotional discomfort increased as we have got richer? Oliver James psycho-analyses the deep-seated emotional malaise that afflicts the British people in the 1990s and proposes a three-point plan for healing. He singles out the role of individualism in raising expecta-tions, increasing discontent, spawning psychopathic behaviour and destroying personal relationships. We have not yet discovered a way to encourage every member of society to reach for the sky and yet not be selfish and disappointed when they fall to earth. In our personal lives we aspire to harmonious and intimate relationships, yet they are the greatest single cause of despair. Oliver James argues that the way we live now induces in our bodies low levels of the `happiness hormone' serotonin. He proposes that the way to heal ourselves is to correct the chemical imbalance directly, by means of drugs containing serotin, to take a complementary course of psychotherapy and-on a political level-to reorganize society on Scandinavian lines."

Why We're Unhappier Compared with 1950 Despite Being Richer : a Treatment for the Low-serotonin Society

Britain on the Couch

Professor Robert Plomin, the world’s leading geneticist, said in 2014 of his search for genes that explain differences in our psychology: ‘I have been looking for these genes for fifteen years. I don’t have any’. Using a mixture of famous and ordinary people, Oliver James drills deep down into the childhood causes of our individuality, revealing why our upbringing, not our genes, plays such an important role in our wellbeing and success. The implications are huge: as adults we can change, we can clutch our fates from predetermined destiny, as parents we can radically alter the trajectory of our childrens’ lives, and as a society we could largely eradicate criminality and poverty. Not in Your Genes will not only change the way you think about yourself and the people around you, but give you the fuel to change your personality and your life for the better.

The real reasons children are like their parents

Not In Your Genes

In this groundbreaking book, clinical psychologist Oliver James shows that it is the way we were cared for in the first six years of life that has a crucial effect on who we are and how we behave. Nurture, in effect, shapes our very nature. In a remarkable analysis of science and popular culture, James combines the latest research with revealing case studies, interviews, and biographies with the likes of Michael Jackson, Mia Farrow, and Prince Charles to prove his point. In addition to presenting his findings, James explains how they can be a source of liberation in our lives. Through the use of provocative questions and insightful examples, he helps readers better understand the way their childhood past is affecting their present and how to "be your own scriptwriter." He also argues that his findings could have huge implications for society as a whole. A top-seller and recipient of significant attention in the U.K., They F*** You Up is an opinionated, entertaining read which causes us to ponder the origins of our present behavior.

How to Develop Emotional Health: The School Of Life

Natural ways to look after yourself, using the wisdom of your body and the extraordinary power of breath. Are you desperate for a good night's sleep? Do you require powerful pain relief or wish to supercharge your fitness and self-care? Oliver James, a body-led psychotherapist and growing presence in the world of breath and breathwork, introduces readers to the power of breathwork through twenty-one simple but effective breathing techniques. Weaving psychotherapy and science with movement and breath, James provides a way to experience life's simplicity through breathing exercises. Sketches and easy-to-follow instructions will help you experience the remarkable potential that has always been right under your nose.

Oliver James 21 Breaths

How David Bowie Used the Persona of Ziggy Stardust to Slay His Childhood Demons

Upping Your Ziggy

Ivan Ward

Using examples from art, film, literature and the lives of famous people, this book explains psychoanalytical thinking, its relevance to everyday life, and its ability to illuminate the nature of human society and culture.

On a Darkling Plain

In the bestselling Affluenza, leading psychologist Oliver James toured the minds of the middle classes in search of an answer to the question- Is it possible to be successful and stay sane? In this seminal work, James brings the focus back to Britain and proves that modern life makes us feel like losers, even if we are winners.Showing that the way we live now, rather than our genes, induces in our bodies low levels of the 'happiness brain chemical' serotonin,Oliver James analyses the deep-seated emotional malaise that has afflicted Britons since the 1990s. By recognising the role of individualism in raising expectations, increasing discontent, spawning psychopathic behaviour and destroying personal relationships, James puts forward a three-point plan for healing by correcting the chemical imbalance directly - through drugs containing serotonin, taking a complementary course of psychotherapy and, on a political level, by reorganising society on Scandinavian lines.In this revised and updated edition, Oliver James puts capitalism in the dock like never before and discovers that while it might be good for business, it is bad for mental health.Showing that the way we live now, rather than our genes, induces in our bodies low levels of the 'happiness brain chemical' serotonin,Oliver James analyses the deep-seated emotional malaise that has afflicted Britons since the 1990s. By recognising the role of individualism in raising expectations, increasing discontent, spawning psychopathic behaviour and destroying personal relationships, James puts forward a three-point plan for healing by correcting the chemical imbalance directly - through drugs containing serotonin, taking a complementary course of psychotherapy and, on a political level, by reorganising society on Scandinavian lines.In this groundbreaking work, Oliver

How Keeping Up with the Joneses Has Depressed Us Since 1950

David Bowie was one of the most famous men of his generation, and remains one of the greatest rock stars of all time. But while his flamboyant career in the public eye has been well documented, much less is known about his family history. In this new book psychologist the author, bestselling author of They F*** You Up, Affluenza and Not in Your

Oliver James

About

Books

Join the club