The Art of Self-Improvement

Ten Timeless Truths

Anna Katharina Schaffner

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Hardback

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English

Yale University Press
09 November 2021

Philosophy of mind; History of religion; Mind, Body, Spirit: thought & practice

A brilliant distillation of the key ideas behind successful self-improvement practices throughout history, showing us how they remain relevant today

Self-help today is a multi-billion-dollar global industry, one often seen as a product of liberalism and capitalism. Far from being a recent phenomenon, however, the practice of self-improvement has a long and rich history, extending all the way back to ancient China. For millennia, philosophers, sages, and theologians have reflected on the good life and devised strategies on how to achieve it.

Focusing on ten core ideas of self-improvement that run through the world’s advice literature, Anna Katharina Schaffner reveals the ways they have evolved across cultures and historical eras, and why they continue to resonate with us today. Reminding us that there is much to learn from looking at time-honed models, Schaffner also examines the ways that self-improvement practices provide powerful barometers of the values, anxieties, and aspirations that preoccupy us at particular moments in time and expose basic assumptions about our purpose and nature.

By: Anna Katharina Schaffner
Imprint: Yale University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 156mm, Spine: 2mm
Weight: 567g
ISBN: 9780300247718
ISBN 10: 0300247710
Pages: 280
Publication Date: 09 November 2021
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Anna Katharina Schaffner is professor of cultural history at the University of Kent. She is the author of Exhaustion: A History and the novel The Truth about Julia.

Reviews for The Art of Self-Improvement: Ten Timeless Truths

Informative, comprehensive, and entertaining. . . . A necessary book for our Zeitgeist. -Scott Haas, author of Why Be Happy? The Japanese Way of Acceptance With remarkable range, this fascinating book brings alive new worlds of self-relations. It is inspiring both academically and personally. -Greta Wagner, Technical University of Darmstadt