"How have we arrived, in the relatively prosperous developed world at least, at a cultural moment which values autonomy, personal freedom, fulfillment and human rights, and above all individualism, more highly than they have ever been valued before in human history, but at the same time those autonomous, free, self-fulfilling individuals are terrified of being alone with themselves?"
I'm a School of Life fan, so I expect to slowly make my way through all their books and videos. This book was largely preaching to the choir, yet still gave me lots to ponder. For example, the notion that we often label people whose behavior is incomprehensible to us as mad, bad, or sad. This book is really a self help guide for people who don't like to be alone, and has philosophy and psychology woven in so as to make taking the first steps not so scary. While I'm perfectly happy with my own company, I enjoyed the meandering meditations on this topic.