The Antidote by Oliver Burkeman – review

Oliver Burkeman renounces 'positive thinking' in his droll search for happiness
  • The Observer,
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Oliver Burkeman's engaging "anti-self-help" book uses an apposite quotation from Edith Wharton early on, namely: "There are lots of ways of being miserable, but there's only one of being comfortable, and that is to stop running round after happiness."

  2. by Oliver Burkeman

Burkeman's aim is to find happiness for people who can't stand the oppressive orthodoxy of "positive thinking", and he finds himself seeking out those who have set themselves apart from the suffocating rat race of modern life.

Burkeman, a journalist and psychology writer, approaches his task with something of the faux naivete of Louis Theroux. He heads to a motivation seminar in San Antonio (with none other than George W Bush as head motivator), finds himself feeling alternately elated and depressed at a meditation retreat in Massachusetts, and finds an odd sort of peace at a Day of the Dead ceremony in Mexico. What unites his travels, and seems to drive the various characters he meets, from modern-day Stoics to business consultants, is disillusionment with a patently false idea that something as complex as the goal of human happiness can be found by looking in a book.

Burkeman's conclusions are best expressed in a quote he uses from the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, who once wrote: "A good traveller has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving." If life can only have one destination, then, Burkeman argues, we should enjoy the journey as much as we can and deal with the terminus when it comes. It's a simple idea, but an exhilarating and satisfying one.

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