Harsimran Kaur ON  Dec 18, 2023, IN BOOK REVIEW, A Therapeutic Journey-Lessons from the School of Life By Alain de Botton–Non Fiction

Rating: 5/5

The mind holds a vast expanse of thoughts, inconsolable in their greed to aggrandize the imperfections of its occupancy. Whats makes them go berserk? Why the fears often turn into obsessions making us grope in the dark?  

Was it like the bucket of water we generously spilled on ourselves as had nothing to do?

Or the enchantments of life cut a malice, de trop?

Or the ambiguity in the unexplained terrors still exhumes a phantasmagoria of inviolable acceptance of a denial intuit?

For example, a childhood trauma of being sexually exploited by someone has never been questioned or quizzed. Growing up with the dread of being inappropriately touched will generate thoughts of shame, guilt and an infra dig sanity. The fear of similar thing happening again and the concomitant bedeviled emotions is indisputably the beginning of a mental illness, albeit the psychological manifestations become somewhat hard to recognize. It as if the grieved thoughts rudderless in their pursuit start appreciating life in its ignominy because it is exactly what life has presented with.   

So, do we give in to the grotesque bleary thoughts and become a bone shaker?

What about the ill-disposed demons scaring the nerve out of us? The obsessive thoughts often insinuating,

‘What a stale meat you are? Or are you a crying saucer pan eating up its own tears in desperation to dim the fire underneath?

Why not be the gauntlet firing ahead in acceptance of the ‘past effluvium’. Let’s be self-assured to create our own garden. Have we ever realized that our concurrence with a trauma is our own ‘defense mechanism’ to assuage our hagridden perplexes?  It eventually grows as an adamant thought ruining the idea of perceptibility. Isn’t it then become important to understand the true meaning of life and why the hell we are here? Some lessons thus need to be learned.

A Therapeutic Journey—Lessons from the School of Life by Alain De Botton provides a healing perspective to combat mental illness; before we understand life, it’s also important to deal with its hidden mysteries. The priceless scents around, the tiny droplets falling off after a thunderstorm, the mountains ascending as giants in glory and the shadow of the trees invading the hustle-bustle; they all give us reasons to be happy in the brevity of their purpose. Then, why we humans act as if life is a burden?

• The girl at the shore is fearful of the tumultuous waves gripping her in its fold. Has the lucidity of life been so harsh; the calmness of the currents feels like a deadpan?
• The incongruence of childhood frivolity often rebuked by parents forms a castle of guilt.
• How the smile on the face becomes obligatory when patience deceits objectivity?

We find fear and anxiety in everything we do. Let’s remind what our mind is capable of? It’s good at preoccupying itself with ‘past atrocities’, ‘ineluctable ambitions’ and definitely denied of objectivity—‘what if’ governs our life. We have forgotten our purpose in life, I think so. We need to find it through ‘freedom of the soul’ and ‘Hope’. Illuminating and enlightening, the book provides HOPE to the mustered strength in paradox and to the incomprehensible mind still dragging the lofts of the past.

Sympathetic and sinuous in bringing forth the challenge of mental illness, ‘Botton’ has disinterred ‘ART’ in its most sidereal form. The paintings are the strokes of crenellations within us or how we perceive the entitlements around us. The perpetuity to be inclusive yet accommodating is certitude of one’s well-being; a reclusive pillow can be shown gratitude for its tolerance to be hijacked every night or learn from the ‘wise cows’ that are not in rout—it’s the grazing that all matters. Are we devoid of imprecations or can run away from disasters; the hikers climbing the mountain know not that the rumpus explosion will drain them soon? Look at the glory of the woman sitting around the palpable quietness of the room reaching out to a fulfillment deeper down the soul. This is what life is all about; in smaller particles finding a purpose, this is all that matters! Let’s not be judgmental towards austerity and simplicity and give a break to our allegiance with flamboyancy.   

The book is magnificent in the realistic purview of ‘what matters more is our allegiance to accept the bleak by passing through a blow pipe.’ Its helps tofree ourselves from the naïve eccentricity that is ambitious to make us look like a beleaguered battering ram. What you then find is HOPE—a hope to add years to existence where the ‘present’ has no space for solipsistic-self and the ‘future’ is a senescence commitment to our otherwise strait laced mind. Fragility is somewhat necessary to accommodate life in the ‘matters of mind’. 

The book resounds a variable charm to the liberation of mental incoherence and disgruntlements. Love forms an intrinsic part; love from the caregivers is imperative to overcome any fear or past traumas. No need to behave like martyrs in the war of life; love has the power to change the entire dynamics. Be free from the trapped soul in consanguinity with religious and social structures. All the more important is, ‘let the greedy hunter die within you; stop scourging the bigger feast if minimal mouthfuls can provide pleasure. Victor Hugo, for example; unlocked the digestive juices of his paste battlements.

“Keep your spirit serene and your life lucid. Never give your enemies the satisfaction of thinking they have been able to cause you grief and pain. Stay happy, cheerful, contemptuous and free.”

Stop being the Machiavellian aristocrat, the author propounds. I add to it to incubate inside an aristocracy of a ‘rough diamond in the iron casket’; polish it as per your own impulses and sensibility taking clues from ‘ART’, channelizing ‘FREEDOM’ and building ‘HOPE’.

TAKE AWAY

CALMING TO THE MIND…