The School of Life
Social media company about self help
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The School of Life is a British multinational[2] social media company founded in 2008 by British author and public speaker Alain de Botton.[3][4] The company is headquartered in London.[5] It publishes various materials dealing with the topics of anxiety management,[6] emotional intelligence, relationships, work, creativity, and spirituality. The company also offers talks, workshops, and counseling services.
 | |
| Three 13 Solutions, Campus London LLP, ELOE Limited, STOA Limited.[1] | |
| Founded | 2008 |
| Founders | Alain de Botton, Sophie Howarth |
| Headquarters | |
| Website | www |
History
The School of Life was founded in 2008[4] by Alain de Botton and Sophie Howarth. Its publishing arm was launched in 2016, with books produced by a content team, some of which were (in 2023) training to be therapists.[7][8]
Publishing
As of 2016, The School of Life owns a publishing press named "The School of Life Press."[9] As of 2025, the company's website sells 98 titles in its "books" category, some of which are workbooks.
Books (incomplete selection)
- Great Thinkers (2016)
- Relationships (2017)
- Why You Will Marry the Wrong Person (2018)
- How to Overcome Your Childhood (2018)
- Anxiety (2019)
- Big Ideas for Curious Minds (2019)
- What They Forgot to Teach You at School (2020)
- The Good Enough Parent (2021)
- On Self Hatred (2022)
- How Modern Media Destroys Our Minds (2022)
- Big Ideas From Literature (2024)[10]
Reception
The company has been criticized for its representations of philosophers and philosophical arguments. The Los Angeles Review of Books criticized a series of books by the School of Life as being a "vortex of jargon pitched somewhere between the banal banter of daytime talk shows and the schedule for a nightmarish New Age retreat."[11] Professor Hans-Georg Moeller of the University of Macau has criticized the School's video on Lao Tzu, stating that it used fabricated quotes and misrepresented the Tao Te Ching.[12]
The New Republic criticised The School of Life's self-help books for being poorly written and pretentious with little or no useful insight.[13]
The philosophy blog, Erraticus, praised the company for its critiques of romanticism and efforts to foster emotional intelligence using philosophy, arguing that The School of Life offers "self-help for those who might need a bit more engagement with the intellect to consider the complete living that comes with also employing our faculties that operate from the neck down."[14]