The Antidote

The Antidote: Happiness for people who can’t stand positive thinking is an exploration of a radically new path to happiness.

In an approach that turns decades of self-help advice on its head, Oliver Burkeman explains why positive thinking serves only to make us more miserable, and why ‘getting motivated’ can exacerbate procrastination.

Comparing the personal philosophies of dozens of ‘happy’ people—among them philosophers and experimental psychologists, Buddhists and terrorism experts, New Age dreamers and hard-headed business consultants—Burkeman uncovers some common ground. They all believe that there is an alternative ‘negative path’ to happiness and success that involves coming face-to-face with, even embracing, precisely the things we spend our lives trying to avoid.

Burkeman concedes that in our personal lives and the world at large, it’s our constant efforts to eliminate the negative—uncertainty, unhappiness, failure—that cause us to feel so anxious, insecure and unhappy.