Living Well, Living Wise: Thriving Beyond Our Fashionable Stories

In the wildly contradictory self-help universe we live in, it's hard to know whether we're born to win or forever hobbled by our "wounds." We've learned to understand our troubles as reflections of disorders, diseases and syndromes. At the same time, we're told that we can tap into our innate powers to create triumphant "best selves." Techniques and procedures for recovery or self-mastery abound. Yet, many of us are floundering and miserable. Living Well, Living Wise: Thriving Beyond the Our Fashionable Stories explores the dehumnaizing effects of our reliance on expert diagnosis as well as the ethical downside of a culture of "me-ness." It encourages us to worry about the selves we have become. But it goes further. Drawing on insights from a variety of wisdom traditions -- theological. philosophical, psychological and narrative -- it offers us fresh eyes to see who we might become if we turn toward the obligations and joys of the good life in the deepest sense of the term.