How We Break: Navigating the Wear and Tear of Living

(Hardback)

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An expert, empathetic guide to the science, psychology and physiology of breaking, from the acclaimed author of How We Are Vincent Deary is a practitioner health psychologist who helps people cope with whatever life has thrown at them. In How We Break, he examines, with great empathy, what happens to our minds and bodies when we are pushed to, and beyond, our limits. Drawing on clinical case studies, cutting edge scientific research, intimate personal stories and references from philosophy, literature and film, How We Break offers us a map through the challenging terrain of everyday human suffering. The big traumas in life, Deary points out, are relatively rare. Much more common is when too many things go wrong at once, or when we are exposed to prolonged periods of difficulty or precarity. In these scenarios, he shows us, our breaking is embodied, as our physical and mental distress are linked, and what happens when the same systems that enable us to navigate through life become dysregulated. Moreover, we break where we live- stress and pressure interact with our individual genetics, life experiences and circumstances in entirely unique and personal ways. Ultimately, anyone can be laid low in the right conditions, no matter how stoic- the book reveals that it's a clinical falsehood to assume we can weather life's storms through force of will alone. In these anxious times, Vincent Deary's voice is a reassuring hand on the shoulder. By equipping us with a better understanding of what happens to us when we're struggling to cope, Deary charts a path through the suffering, helping us find compassion for ourselves and for those around us.

Reviews

Drawing on a wide range of sources about the human experience, Vincent Deary has written a warm and compassionate book about how we hurt and how we heal. A rich and humane work -- Gwen Adshead, forensic psychiatrist and author of THE DEVIL YOU KNOW
From a deep mine of science, philosophy, art and personal experience, Vincent Deary has produced a treasure of a book. Every page of How We Break gleams with wisdom and insight. Nobody could fail to be enriched by it -- Matt Rowland Hill, author of ORIGINAL SINS
Exhilarating... a lyrical, consoling exploration... It takes guts to recognise that change is called for, and more to follow it through. This book - so long as you don't read it on autopilot - should help -- Review for 'How We Are' * Guardian *
Fascinating, profound, wonderfully well-observed... [How We Are] could change lives -- Review for 'How We Are' * Daily Mail *
This is a book that gets your mind whizzing off in lots of directions... It's crammed with ideas. It makes your head spin, in a good way -- Review for 'How We Are' * Spectator *
An extraordinary book... There are so many insights and moments of poetry along the way... The book is all the more useful because it is uncomfortable and disturbing; it makes you re-examine your priorities and habits -- The Guardian (Paperback of the Week) * Nick Lezard *

Author Bio

Vincent Deary is professor of applied health psychology at Northumbria University, where his research focuses on the development of new psychosocial interventions for people with a variety of health complaints, including cancer survivors and fear of falling in older adults. As a clinician he works in the UK's first trans-diagnostic Fatigue Clinic, to help people for whom fatigue is a disabling symptom. He is the author of How We Are.