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About
We live in small worlds.
How We Are is an astonishing debut and the first part of the monumental How to Live trilogy, a profound and ambitious work that gets to the heart of what it means to be human: how we are, how we break, and how we mend.
In Book One, How We Are, we explore the power of habit and the difficulty of change. As Vincent Deary shows us, we live most of our lives automatically, in small worlds of comfortable routine-what he calls Act One. Conscious change requires deliberate effort, so for the most part we avoid it. But, inevitably, from within or without, something comes along to disturb our small worlds-some News from Elsewhere. And, with reluctance, we begin the work of adjustment: Act Two.
Over decades of psychotherapeutic work, Deary has witnessed the theater of change-how ordinary people get stuck, struggle with new circumstances, and finally transform for the better. He is keenly aware that novelists, poets, philosophers, and theologians have grappled with these experiences for far longer than psychologists. Drawing on his own personal experience and a staggering range of literary, philosophical, and cultural sources, Deary has produced a mesmerizing and universal portrait of the human condition.
Part psychologist, part philosopher, part novelist, Deary helps us to see how we can resist being habit machines, and make our acts and our lives more fully our own.
How We Are is an astonishing debut and the first part of the monumental How to Live trilogy, a profound and ambitious work that gets to the heart of what it means to be human: how we are, how we break, and how we mend.
In Book One, How We Are, we explore the power of habit and the difficulty of change. As Vincent Deary shows us, we live most of our lives automatically, in small worlds of comfortable routine-what he calls Act One. Conscious change requires deliberate effort, so for the most part we avoid it. But, inevitably, from within or without, something comes along to disturb our small worlds-some News from Elsewhere. And, with reluctance, we begin the work of adjustment: Act Two.
Over decades of psychotherapeutic work, Deary has witnessed the theater of change-how ordinary people get stuck, struggle with new circumstances, and finally transform for the better. He is keenly aware that novelists, poets, philosophers, and theologians have grappled with these experiences for far longer than psychologists. Drawing on his own personal experience and a staggering range of literary, philosophical, and cultural sources, Deary has produced a mesmerizing and universal portrait of the human condition.
Part psychologist, part philosopher, part novelist, Deary helps us to see how we can resist being habit machines, and make our acts and our lives more fully our own.
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Reviews
"Exhilarating... a lyrical, consoling exploration... It takes guts to recognise that change is called for, and more to follow it through. This book - so long as you don't read it on autopilot - should help"
Oliver Burkeman, The Guardian
"[How We Are is] a book about human nature. It's crammed with ideas. It makes your head spin, in a good way. It tells us that human beings form habits, and that we are less in control of our minds than we thought we were. This is how we are. I'm looking forward to how we break."
William Leith, The Spectator
"Fascinating, profound, wonderfully well-observed... [How We Are] could change lives."
Bel Mooney, The Daily Mail
Extended Details
- SeriesHow to Live Trilogy #1