This was a calm and clear exploration of mental illness and I appreciated the clarity of the approach.

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fascinating read about mental illness, there is no shame in being mentally unwell nor needing help. I found the writing very engaging and enlightening to see this condition from another perspective. The school of life explores mental health and its challenges. The book goes into detail around this history, science and also peoples personal experiences regarding mental health and the complexity. Thank you for this Arc

There is nothing shameful or rare in our condition. That is what I always say to my clients. "Mental illness is not a death sentence, but beneath the crisis, we are being given an opportunity to restart our lives on a more generous, kind, and realistic footing. We should dare to listen to what our pain is trying to tell us."
We all have the ability to cope. As a mental health practitioner, I genuinely enjoy this very thought-provoking book.
There is no health without mental health. Thank you to everyone for making it this far. I hope this book can bring comfort as much as I get and it's very courageous to ask for help.
I also highly recommend another book from The School of Life called: Reasons to Be Hopeful that also will be published this year. Both books can help shift our perspective to be more kind to ourselves.

Thank you NetGalley and The School of Life for providing this book.

On Mental Illness by The School of Life offers a fascinating exploration of mental health and its various challenges. The book delves into the history, science, and personal experiences surrounding mental illness, all with the aim of helping readers gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of the complexities of the human mind.

The writing style is engaging and accessible, making even the most complex concepts easy to digest. The authors also provide practical tips and advice for managing mental health challenges, making this book a valuable resource for anyone seeking to improve their well-being.

While there were a few sections that felt a bit repetitive, overall, On Mental Illness is a well-researched and thought-provoking read. The School of Life offers a unique perspective on mental health, one that is grounded in compassion, empathy, and a deep appreciation for the complexities of the human experience.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in mental health or seeking to improve their own mental well-being. It's a valuable resource that will leave you with a deeper understanding and appreciation for the challenges faced by those with mental illness.

I've used information from this book to manage my own mental health symptoms as well as help my clients battling with mental illness. The author points out mentally unhealthy habits we have adopted and give suggestions to get us back on track with happiness and a good life. Such a good tool!

thank you to netgalley and the publishers for sending through an ebook for review :)

this is the second book I’ve read from The School of Life and I enjoyed it just as much. The understanding of human experience is so sincere at its core and it really resonates with me whether I directly relate or not.

Since reading it, I’ve gone on to recommend it to many people including my close family because I truly believe that books like this help validate your feelings and put it into words when you can’t seem to find the words yourself.

This is a very informative book on mental illness and how to navigate through episodes and be kind to oneself. It details ways in which you can learn and be self aware for further episodes.

I would definitely recommend this book.

Many thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for gifting me this arc in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

The School of Life: On Mental Illness was a helpful, thought-provoking and important read. It was about understanding how the mind words through its ups and down, and responding to these situations wisely. The cover of this book is so beautiful.

When I see the 'School of Life' I have high expectations.
This book was very informative and I liked the way the book is broken into smaller chunks. It made it much easier to read. It was also very helpful when going through mental illness and concentration isn't great.
The book includes images but I don't know why. It didn't help with understanding, and it didn't add to anything.

Overall this was a good little book that had tons of info in it. It covers a variety of topics so it's a good insight for beginners.

Another great read from The School of Life. I found this to be particularly helpful in terms of positioning mental illness in relation to mental wellness. I can imagine this being a great gift for someone new to the idea of mental health, offering a thoughtful but thorough overview of the subject - and how to approach it with empathy and understanding.

While I'm sure everyone's suffering is unique, the author has captured the essence of mental illness, including the confusion, exhaustion, and pain that comes with it. The author goes on to discuss the journey to that dark place, the journey out of it, and the longer term expectations and care of one's own mental well-being.
I tried to absorb the book's insights because I believe it will help her understand me, my behaviour, my pain, and my journey with chronic anxiety and eventual breakdown.
Anyone who has suffered in a similar way would do well to read this book. I'd like to thank the author.

An easy to understandable book to read. A book more for learning and getting some information. Not an in-depth book but an introduction to some things.

This book bothered me right from the beginning. I was surprised by the sweeping generalization that most people go along with their adult lives just fine for decades until something happens and they crack. I was diagnosed with major depressive disorder and anxiety disorder at the age of 11. I went into this book wanting to feel seen, but left feeling misunderstood. Thank you for letting me try it out.

This was so interesting. It bought up some really interesting points of value and I learned a lot. Whilst this didn’t bring up anything new, it was a good reminder of those important things in life

This is a book that covers a wide range of areas on the spectrum from mental wellness to mental and emotional deterioration. There are so many areas covered including but not limited to the early origins of the psychotherapy, psychopharmacology, psychiatry, and psychology field to nature therapy and basic needs we have as humans. This is a tremendous resource for both mental health professionals and readers wanting to learn more about what mental health looks like in practice and the areas of our human life cycle that provide both protective factors and risk factors for overall well-being.

Understanding and managing our mental health is lifelong journey and process, with the stigma and weight around mental illness being one of the toughest parts to navigate.

The School of Life: Mental Illness helps us understand the history of mental illness, the different variables that contribute to our understanding of it and provides a hope for things improving for the better.

The understanding and history of mental illness is explored throughout the book, through different lens (medication, self-compassion, gratitude) which provide us all with an opportunity to be kinder to ourselves and others.

A well-written book of hope, including historical context, will make the reader feel they aren't alone in the world, that they too can overcome mental illness and the stigma around it.

My critique only lies in the verbiage of the book; while beautifully written, at times, it can also seem to be a little too high-level for the average reader. If this is to be a resource for those striving to understand their own mental health and that of others, I wish it was just a bit more digestible for anyone to pick up and read.

The School of Life on Mental Illness is a high-brow series of essays on mental illness. This well-written book, by the Therapy dept at the School of Life is written from the perspective of experienced Therapists and therefore is a valuable work on the subject. Some chapters are brilliantly written and thought-provoking.
I have enjoyed reading the book and have read others from the School of Life and would recommend this to persons experiencing, or those seeking to understand mental illness in the modern age.

The School of Life: On Mental Illness is a short but very well-rounded guide on mental illness and achieving emotional wellbeing.

Rather than focusing on specific illnesses it focuses on how and why we become mentally unwell, how we can reframe ourselves and how we think to overcome some of the difficulties we face. There is also a huge emphasis on how we can dismantle stigma of mental health within through its gentle reminders that we are not alone no matter how isolated a mental illness can make us feel.

Despite being a short book, a vast number of topics are touched upon. The book starts with reasons to live and goes on to explore areas such as acceptance, medication, love, community, modernity, and self-compassion to name just a few.

Having read books by The School of Life before and enjoying them and with mental health being an area of interest of mine, I was very excited to read this book and was not disappointed.

As soon as I started reading the book felt a warm and reassuring conversation with a friend. Having had my own struggles with mental illness in the past, I felt like the book understood everything I have felt in the past and some of the theories and ideas it presented highly resonated with me and the way I think and feel about the world. Whilst a lot of the stuff was familiar the reminders were invaluable.

I have seen some people have been disappointed by this book so let me be blunt. This is a guide. If you are looking for a scientific book, with extensive research and case studies then this is not for you. The chapters are punctual and don’t leave much room for exploration. However, if you’re new to the topic of and want to get a brief well-rounded understanding of mental health, or perhaps are struggling, need some gentle reminders or just want to feel less alone in how you are feeling then this book sets out to achieve exactly that.

Overall, this is a fantastic consolidation of why some people struggle with mental health and how we can achieve mental well-being. The School of Life: On Mental Illness is like a conversation with a friend; it completely understands the harsh and isolating realities of mental health and truly felt like a hug in a book.

I DNF this. I tried to dedicate ten minutes daily to reading this but couldn't muster through the writing. The text was so convoluted that the message of the book was difficult to ascertain. In a time when titles about mental illness are desperately welcomed, this fell flat. The School of Life series has such positive reviews; I found this utterly disappointing. Maybe the last thirty pages were better, but by the time I reached the warnings about the dangers of dates (the fruits) I was had discredited the text.

On Mental Illness comes from The School of Life, which, according to their website, is “an organisation built to help us find calm, self-understanding, resilience and connection – especially during troubled times.” The book’s introduction says it aims to be “a sanctuary, a walled garden filled with nourishing psychological vegetation, and with comfortable benches on which to sit and recover our strength, in an atmosphere of kindness and fellow-feeling.”

Chapters in the book include reasons to live, acceptance, medication, psychotherapy, self-compassion, and gratitude. There’s a chapter on self-regulation that touches on common issues like sleep, hygiene, and exercise, and also presents the concept of the window of tolerance.

When it comes to the causes of mental illness, I’m anti-reductionism, whether that goes in a biological or psychosocial direction. This book leans pretty hard into psychosocial reductionism in this paragraph, which felt rather reminiscent of Johann Hari’s book Lost Connections:

“We shouldn’t be surprised at the enormous levels of mental illness at large in society; we need only get clear how bad we collectively are at love, how poor we are at lending sympathy, at listening, at offering reassurance, at feeling compassion and at forgiving—and conversely how good we are at hating, shaming, and neglecting… Furthermore, we’ve opted to wash our hands of the issue of love and handed responsibility for healing wholesale to scientists, as though they could culture a complete solution to mental wellness through their medication. We ignore that the cure largely lies in the emotional realm: in getting better at appeasing each other’s fears, at being generous about our transgressions, at no longer tormenting and maltreating one another for our failures and at sitting together through the darkness in a spirit of care and kindly forbearance.”

The chapter on psychotherapy included the decidedly odd section “What benefit is there in your illness?” The book acknowledges that asking this “could sound like the height of nastiness,” but it “can be raised from the kindest and most sincere motives.” One of the example scenarios that’s given is a father acting out of jealousy of “his son’s nascent sexual prowess.” Oh my, how very Freudian! In the same chapter, I found this line interesting: “Most therapists we come across are likely to be less than what they should be.” I don’t necessarily disagree, but “most” was an interesting choice of word.

The book is a quick read, with short chapters. I’m not entirely sure how to describe the writing style, which is quite different from what I usually read. It felt formal; not academic or scientific or using difficult concepts or vocabulary, but sort of reminiscent of what you might expect to read when visiting a museum or monastery. There is some use of the collective “we,” but that didn’t make it feel any less impersonal to me. From the book description, it seems like people with mental illness are the target audience, but I finished the book feeling rather unclear on who it was really trying to speak to. I think it might actually appeal more to outsiders who want a kind, gentle, pretty picture of mental illness than it would to seriously mentally ill folks like myself. Or maybe it’s just me; hard to say for sure.


I received a reviewer copy from the publisher through Netgalley.