The School of Life

The School of Life is a British multinational social media company founded in 2008 by British author and public speaker Alain de Botton. The company is headquartered in London. It publishes various materials dealing with the topics of anxiety management, emotional intelligence, relationships, work, creativity, and spirituality.

History
The School of Life was founded in 2008 by a group of academics, including author Alain de Botton. The curator, Sophie Howarth, is assisted by psychotherapists, artists, and educators.

Publishing
As of 2016, The School of Life owns a publishing press named "The School of Life Press."

Books

 * Great Thinkers (2016)
 * Relationships (2017)
 * 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)

Criticism
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." 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.

The School of Life's YouTube videos have been criticized for allegedly promoting a nihilistic and pessimistic worldview. Some videos have also been criticized for promoting acts such as masturbation and for publishing explicit images of genitalia.

Jeffrey Howard praises the company for its critiques of romanticism and efforts to foster emotional intelligence using philosophy, and argues 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."