The Antidote

The Antidote is a series of journeys among people who share a single, surprising way of thinking about life. On the surface, they might not seem to share much else: they are philosophers and experimental psychologists, Buddhists and terrorism experts, New Age dreamers and hard-headed business consultants. But what they have in common is a hunch about human psychology: that in our personal lives and the world at large, it's our constant efforts to eliminate the negative - that cause us to feel so anxious, insecure and unhappy. And that there is an alternative "negative path" to happiness and success that involves embracing the things we spend our lives trying to avoid. Oliver Burkeman's new book is a witty, fascinating and counter-intuitive read that turns decades of self-help advice on its head and forces us to rethink completely our attitudes towards failure, uncertainty and death.