Maturity involves accepting with good grace that we are all - like marionettes - manipulated by the past. And, when we can manage it, it may also require that we develop our capacity to judge and act in the ambiguous here and now with somewhat greater fairness and neutrality.

The Past In The Present

Children can't go elsewhere. They have no extended social network. Even when things are going right, childhood is a gentle open prison. As a result of the peculiarities of our early years, we lose balance. Things within us start to develop in wayward directions. The causes of our primal wounds are rarely outwardly dramatic but their effects are rarely insignificant. such is the fragule base of childhood that nothing outwardly dramatic appalling needs to have happened to us for us to wind up inwardly profoundly scrambled.

Primal Wounds

Everyone around us may have been trying to do their best and yet we end up now, as adults, nursing certain major hurts that we are so much less than we might be.

This is a book about everything you were never taught at school. It's about how to understand your emotions, find and sustain love, succeed in your career, fail well and overcome shame and guilt. It's also about letting go of the myth of a perfect life in order to achieve genuine emotional maturity. Written in a hugely accessible, warm and humane style, The School of Life is the ultimate guide to the emotionally fulfilled lives we all long for - and deserve.

The School of Life

Denisia Nayve