The Antidote

Is our search for happiness futile?

Or are we just going about it the wrong way?

What if ‘positive thinking’ and relentless optimism aren’t the solution to the happiness dilemma, but part of the problem?

What if the relentless pursuit of happiness is what is making us unhappy?

Turning decades of self-help advice on its head, Oliver Burkeman offers a powerful antidote to the modern cult of optimism and self-optimization – what he calls the negative path to happiness. What if true happiness is found by turning towards uncertainty, failure and mortality instead?

Drawing on philosophy and psychology, Burkeman celebrates the surprising power of negative thinking. Stoicism offers the practice of imagining what may go wrong. Buddhism questions our attachment to certainty. Psychological research shows how suppressing unwanted thoughts can make them more persistent, while stories of rigid goal setting expose the dangers of confusing determination with wisdom.

Wise, practical and uplifting, The Antidote is for anyone exhausted by being told to think positively, achieve more and eliminate discomfort – for anyone looking to live more fully, openly and joyously.

‘Burkeman has written some of the most truthful and useful words on happiness to be published in recent years’ Guardian