Peer2Politics

“Art holds out the promise of inner wholeness,”British philosopher Alain de Botton wrote inArt as Therapy (public library), one of the best art books of 2013. He expounds the premise of the book in this fantastic “Sunday sermon” from The School of Life — the lecture series de Botton founded in 2008, premised on the idea that secular thought can learn a lot from the formats of religion, which went on toreimagine the self-help genre. De Botton argues that in the 19th century, culture replaced scripture as our culture’s object of worship, but we are no longer allowed to bring our fears and anxieties to this modern cathedral. “It is simply not acceptable to bring the aches and pains of our souls to the guardians of culture,” he laments. He goes on to explore how we can reclaim this core soul-soothing function of art from the grip of empty elitism and sterile snobbery, focusing on the the seven psychological functions of art.