Addiction is a vague term and professionals usually prefer to talk about dependence. Still, whatever word you use, somewhere between champagne truffles and crack cocaine a line is crossed. But where?. Whether we have free will or not, there is an important difference between choosing to have a coffee and being consumed by the need to shoot heroin.
ReadThink of people you know who have refused to back down on a complaint because “it’s the principle”. They may be right and they may be able to win. But the effort of complaining and following through can demean even the most righteous of complainants. Sometimes, we should shirk even a good fight, because we don’t want to become bitter.
ReadThere is an ambiguity in the very notion of a simple life. There is the zealous desire for a life[…]
ReadIntroversion is to engagement as digestion is to ingestion. We need to feed our minds with good ideas and accurate information, and that requires an attentiveness to the world and others incompatible with pathological navel-gazing. But having done so, none of that helps us to grow mentally unless we can chew it over, digest what is nutritious and expel the waste.
ReadTo coincide with the publication of The Shrink and The Sage, Julian Baggini and Antonia Macaro, authors of the book and the FT Weekend Magazine column of the same name, talk to philosopher John Sellars about the relationship between ancient Stoic philosophy and modern psychotherapy.
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