Articles on Self-Knowledge, Relationships and Calm - The School of Life

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Sociability

The Origins of People Pleasing

The people pleaser labours under a punishing internal directive never to utter their own thoughts. Self-hatred has destroyed the development of their own minds.

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Sociability

How to Handle an Envious Friend

Almost inevitably, somewhere along the path of our friendships, we are fated to stumble upon one of the most paradoxical yet universal of characters: the envious friend.

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Self-Knowledge

The Benefits of Forgetfulness

We are rescued from many of our sorrows not by active solutions or nifty work of the intellect but by our reliable tendencies to forget.

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  • Self-Knowledge
  • Growth & Maturity

Why We Must Have Done Bad to Be Good

We have to learn how corrupt we are, how insipid we can be, how little we understand, in order to be in any position to bestow adequate warmth on our fellow humans.
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  • Relationships
  • Sex

What Freud’s Oedipus Complex Can Teach Us

We might think of the Oedipus Complex as offering us a guiding narrative about how we come, through the varied experiences of childhood, to have our own distinctive approach to sexuality.
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  • Self-Knowledge
  • Trauma and Childhood

How to Get Your Parents Out of Your Head

One of the most difficult things about being human is how easily influenced we are by our childhoods — and more particularly, our parents.
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Self-Knowledge

Self-Forgiveness

Our refusal to forgive ourselves for our mistakes tends to hang on a strong sense of how much these were, in the end, avoidable.

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The Wisdom of Dusk

Calm

The Wisdom of Dusk

Our thoughts are – nominally – free to go in any direction at any time of day or night. In…
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Self-Forgiveness

Self-Knowledge

Self-Forgiveness

Our refusal to forgive ourselves for our mistakes tends to hang on a strong sense of how much these were,…
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