Alain de Botton on Art as Therapy
LECTURE @THE SCHOOL OF LIFE: The founder of The School of Life, Alain de Botton examines the purpose of art. We often hear that art is meant to be very important; but we're seldom told exactly why. Here de Botton argues that art can be a form of therapy.
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The mic matches his sweater in such a perfect way that I can hardly focus on anything else...
🤣🤣🤣🤣
Hahaha I was trying to see what you were talking about and at first I thought the mic consisted only of the black shadow part beneath and I didn't even see the purplish brown part
Thanks, I can't either now 😂
@@carmenlith201 hahhahaha same 😅🙈
Now you mention it
Thank you for teaching me 10 times more in 45 minutes than I've ever learned in 9 years of art class....
It's deeply comforting that there is someone out there contemplating and analyzing these concepts and people being affected by them. Having a sensitivity to philosophy and thoughtfulness can make things lonely sometimes.. Thank you School of Life and Alain De Botton!
This was wonderful. I didn't know that there were other people who viewed art in this way! I actually just dropped out of college as a philosophy major because there was no room for understanding truth or art like this in academia. If anyone is interested on this topic, you might also like Roger Scruton's Documentary "Why Beauty Matters" Also, for those who are into philosophy and are interested in aesthetics, then you would also like David Bentley Hart's "The Beauty of The Infinite". Also, if anyone's into architecture, there's a movement called New Urbanism that discusses how architecture and the placement of buildings affects our lives. I read a book called 'Till We Have Built Jerusalem' and found it very helpful. I have a strong feeling that the people who loved this video will also appreciate these books!
Thanks, this website and videos are all so helpful. You all give so much practical advice that we should have been discussing sooner in life. Generally, we don't talk about ethics, art,or beauty. We're sort of left to our own devices, and a lot of us are floundering to understand what a good relationship can look like. I've found all of this very helpful.
@Hive Atlas thank you for the suggestions! New Urbanism should look into Feng Shui it's an ancient way of placing objets; form buildings to details we surround ourselves with and the affect they have on us emotionally. As far as architecture and archeology check "newearth" and "WISE UP" and channels like "John Levi"; food for though if anything. "New Occultic Art In London" by swilliamism, he has many more on that subject. cheers
I‘m reading his book “Art as therapy” in a bookstore now，and it is really amazing！Thank you！I'll look into the books you recommended👏😄
i know its been 5 years but...bless you, bless you bless you bless you! ❤
Feng Shui?
I truly see this guy as a helper of societies , all over the planet.
Yes..
Well, I have an odd point of view, maybe due to old age. I am delighted that de Botton exists. I wish that I had invented him. But It is his writing that surprises me the most. . He can string words together in such a way that I am able to sense the different meanings and thoughts that are hiding within the language we use. It is some kind of meeting of philosophy and poetry! So, when I put the book down I can't say I have learned anything, but my eyes have been opened, and I have been vastly entertained, and maybe even a little bit inspired.
Your beautifully poetic as well how you have put these words together. Thank you
This channel is a work of art.
Art is definitely a therapy. I recover from depression by drawing portrait. It also gives me hope.
I don't think I've ever spent 45 minutes of my life more effectively. That was truly wonderful
In my personal life, Art has been a constant source of therapy, and has been the primary thing I reach for when I go through a bout of depression or despair. Every serious depressive episode I have ever had in my adult life has been followed up by a flurry of creation, mostly in music and writing. Very few people ever hear my music or read my writing, but it is not about other people. It's about my own attempt to express, and thereby deal with, my writhing, seething subjectivity by externalizing it in an act of thoughtful creation.
Hear you 🙌🙌🙌
amen!
Have you post your writhing online? I would like to read
I have read most of Alain's works. I really love this guy.
Yesterday I discovered by chance (or rather thanks to the wonderful algorithms that reign over youtube) The School of Life. It is earth-shattering to me because close to everything said on this channel is something I have felt, by myself, alone, without being able to put words on it, and there is an entire wave of people who thinks the same. To know that there are people that have the same ideology as I do, and that there is precedence in history (which I have had the chance to read a little of, Nietzsche being a personal favorite) larger than I assumed feels reassuring on such a deep level for me. I don't think many other things will make me happier than having discovered The School of Life.
Léo Zaffran I feel the same way since I discovered the School of Life. Feeling validated and inspired at the same time which doesn’t happen very often for deep thinkers (dare I say) like myself.
Alain totally rocks, he doesn't delve into the transpersonal so much but his articulation, eloquence and pace are enchanting. Ultimately he, like most of us wants to help create a better, more humane world for us all.
Wish there were more professors like you at the University.
Listening to de Botton speak on this subject is such a genuine pleasure. Creativity is the seminal paradox of our civilization. It bridges the child and the adult, our mortality and our immortality, our past, the present and its future. It cannot be measured with tests, yet it is demeaned by the education system as an extracurricular activity. It is harnessed to industry for profit, yet it is dismissed by society as the plaything of folly. It is marginalized to the periphery, yet it is central to who we are as a species. It is denied agency by the elite few who hold their power jealously, yet it is envied and desired by all because it recalls the purity and joy of what it means to be most fully alive and human. Celebrate and embrace this stigma.
when I play the piano or write my novels I feel immortal, and the world is noble and good, rewarding even.
lol course you do
I visited the Rijks last May (2014) and it was simply the best museum experience I've ever had. I still think about it from time to time. Brilliant! Thank you Alain de Botton
22.00 you are my role model and i look up to you Alain. you are my hero
Thanks Alain, you make the world more beautiful with your ideas.
I've listened to this lecture over and over again, what a great argument, a truly insightful way of looking at art. Thank you !
Thank you Alain for all wonderful lessons and insights and perspective. You mean so much for this world. One day I wish my work would be as poetic as the feeling I have when I'm listening to you.
Just brilliant! I LOVE the reference to how we choose kitchen designs to try to fill in what is missing from our lives, ie, calm.
Alain is truly magnificent. I doubt you'll see this, but I'd like you to know that you're by role model Alain. You and the school are doing work I admire so much I'm finding it difficult to actually get the point across. Thank you very, very much.
Been a professional artist for over 50 years and a composer. I didn't know we were considered the new therapists and the new priests! LOL Thanks for sharing! Very enlightening!
44:40 Awesome conclusion! A perfect way to end a speech. Alain, I am humbled and graced. Thanks again
Thank you for these incredible and inspiring videos! I truly believe that the internet was intended for vessels such as School Of Life and it's a genuine help to myself and the loved ones I share the videos with. Thank you.
Finally! we have philosopher of 21st century! Alain - he s the one!
I never understood the true meaningness art can have in our lives. It always stirred me, thinking about the thoughts and emotions running through the artists' minds and onto the painting/sculpture, but I never truly understood it. This discussion has opened up a huge part of our culture to me. Thank you :)
Reminds me of what Freud spoke of in the beginning of 'Civilization and its discontents'. Alot of existententialism this too. I like De Botton, hes a good narrator .
This was recommended to watch as part of an art subject in my uni degree and this was great to watch/listen to. I have learned a lot. Thankyou 🙌🏼
A wonderful lecture. It's safe to say I exist because of art. My art heals me daily, gives me peace, a reason to live and a way to eloquently communicate who I am and what I value. Since I can't hold down a normal job due to my genetic disorder, I make mosaics, take nature photos, write poems, play multiple instruments and write/record songs. I've been lucky in that I've had some success in each field. The art absorbs me. I don't know how good I am, objectively speaking, at any of it. All I know is that I have to do it, for it's not so much about the end result as it is the making of it. I become hyper-focused - my thoughts and vision sharpen, the mental and physical pain is lessened. Chronic art for chronic pain.
Thoroughly enjoyed and feeling just that bit more enlightened. Bravo!
This is such a thrilling and exciting and engouraging lecture! Even cried a bit while watching it! For me as for a student of art history, this is such a meaningful and prospective on art. Thank you so much.
Such an excellent lecture on the importance of that basic human need and capacity, to be creative, make symbols to represent aspects of our own life and create art.
Can't wait to visit a museum arranged as Alain described. He is so brilliant in explaining complicated things with amazing clarity and fresh perspectives. We are blessed.
Love to hear him speak. What wonderful insight this man has to say.
So many pearls of wisdom... and ways to 'reframe' our thinking.
Thank you Alain, this is a truly inspirational talk!
Wonderful view on art, art can indeed console and inspire us. And it can show us the beauty of the world and life. This beauty can give us consolation from the horrors of life we all go through sometimes.
I am so happy to find you! You're are amazing! Thank you
Awesome presentation - works of art should be presented according to emotion: sadness, anxiety, love.... this is how we file it in our souls.
As an artist I needed to hear this. I've been holding back. Like I needed permission. Thankyou Alain. Frame I will. Loudly!
Can't get enough of this guy.. loved the Rijksmuseum as much as any museum I've ever visited.
Ah!! This has so long been my exact complaint about art's modern presentation, and I am happy to hear an eloquent argument from Alain de Botton. I now also know who was behind the brilliant re-hanging at Rijksmuseum which I experienced in August 2014. When I returned to the States, I was ranting and raving about how wonderfully and humanely the art was addressed there... well done!
His smile is sexy, so as his voice especially his intelligence. But he's not ugly to begin with. His eyes are beautiful. Your talks are amazing.
he always has something interesting to say, and his delivery is superb. even his shiny bonce is disarming and prevents me from otherwise resenting him for making me feel inadequate ! .
This is brilliant! Thank you so much for putting these ideas out into the world. We are the first photography community for depression and anxiety, based on therapeutic photography and storytelling techniques - glad to see more conversation around art as therapy :)
Nice to meet you. Thank you for your information!
Great man, great work, you can see it three times , thank you !!
Manual labour work is great therapy
A wonderful and useful philosopher! Love AdB's work, it's all genuinely life improving AND truthful!
Listened to this presentation darning my socks, which is an activity I allow myself to consider as a really comforting and truly satisfying form of arts and crafts. I am pretty sure I get the same satisfaction as Manet had when he gave his best attention to a bunch of asparagus. Whatever, I will feel good walking with them this coming week.
Patrick Leclercq I expect it's an activity which is meditative for you
I was amazed to hear about Fernando Pessoa, studied most of his work. He is absolutely brilliant.
Brilliant, love this school of life.
What’s so wonderful about this lecture is that in certain moments I can identify where he’s sourcing information without him mentioning the person. Of course, it goes without saying that he isn’t trying to take credit for the ideas but rather taking the valuable ideas from these philosophers and applying their ideas in an engaging delivery similar to a rabbi at a sermon. So many sources of inspiration all neatly packaged with brilliance.
Love this guy I listen to him often x
His lectures are entertaining, funny , and extremely intelligent. A great lecturer!
This made my day. I just found a role-model in Alain.
Magic, I love your work. I discovered Astrology just before a nervous breakthrough and as I'm a jungster I try to use his ideas around art and the unconscious to explore deeper psychological challenges in certain charts. Thank you for your inspiration
Wonderful message! Great as always :)
This guy is a genius. So inspiring. Love this talk!
Where can I read more about the idea that what we seek in art is what is lacking in us?
This is one of the most amazing thing I’ve heard in a long time
he has some really great ideas, glad I listened.
I love listening him.He always makes me better.
love this talk, its very soothing etc etc
OMG I saw that exhibit! I did not realize that the author I adore had curated the expo!
Lovely! As an artist i always thought i was a shaman, entering the world of fantasy and feelings, connecting people to this world with art. I love the idea of art as therapy, because many of my painting have to be relaxing, people should feel safe in this world, everything is calm.
Please rearrange the national gallery in Copenhagen, this sounds so wonderful. We have Købke here :)
Brilliant I'm an artist living in Kingston and this is everything I'm trying to do with a rinky dink little art school and gallery - I think this is so correct so humanist so the future. If your getting this because I've made it public watch it I know it's long but worth every moment.
Scott Wilson it's unbelievable. He is one of the all time great thinkers. I had no idea.
What's your gallery called?
i need alain to walk around an art gallery with me and tell me what they all mean
+Scott Phillips Lol, that's awesome. I second that post!
+Scott Phillips Yes, agreed. As I was listening to him talk about 'framing', I was thinking that we need his light, concise commentary (on plaques to read, on audio, whatever) so we can (better) understand the artist, what s/he was living through, trying to convey, etc. Some paintings or sculptures or buildings are fairly easy to decipher, to understand. Others, particularly many abstract ones, while often aesthetically pleasing or emotionally powerful in some way, are not at all easy to interpret. I may feel something, but even though I'm fairly good with words, I fail at naming, let alone articulating what I feel in response to a certain painting. De Botton's captions or commentaries would make that process so much simpler and therefore, the viewing of the art so much more helpful to me/viewers.
So he would be translating it for you..giving you his view, when art is actually subjective, its goal is to be what you see, what you feel, and how it changes or triggers you. I'm an artist. I don't want to tell anyone what I felt or whatever while doing it. I want the viewer to feel his/her own feelings. Art is not even about the artist, it's something that lives in the ether and comes through people, not by people. Listening to somebody else's interpretation is not The Truth...you are listening to a version from somebody who did not even participate in creating the art...I don't see critics or "art interpreters" as something that's necessary. I find them annoying and arrogant, often sounding jealous.
i dont know if i can say the art interpreters are necessary, but if you were intrigued by a piece of art and cant quiet understand and articulate why, you don't necessarily have to take the interpretation as "the truth" - rather a point of view. Objective remarks about the artist and the work of art can as well create more curiosity and willingness to understand what you feel and dwell on it.
If the Art itself, don't communicate with one , has w valuable would the " interpretation" would be ?
You don't have to gird yourself to look at every painiting when you enter a gallery. You can pick a theme, or pick a room or pick a single work, ponder, reflect, then leave, and come back for something different another time. You can also go back to visit old friends: I always like to visit Towneley Hall Art Gallery, and seek out the Sogne Fjord, The Egyptian Girl, and Farquharson's studies of sheep.
I swear I'm in love with his mind
I had read the book and got a slight interest but it woke in me a lot of curiosity and i found a School of Life in Melbourne unfortunately i am in Brisbane but now i understand more and in a better way what was the initial message of the book that i had misinterpreted tks for people who as Alain can bring intellectual joy and make life more pleasant
As a practicing religious person - while I might not agree with the concept of art replacing religion in todays society, I very much appreciate your description of how art expresses the vastness and depth of complex and multi-faceted human emotions (which can enhance religious practice as well as the general practice of being human). Thank you for yet another psychologically saavy, stimulating and entertaining lecture!
Bloody well said!
I just watch Alain to rest. His calm voice is luscious.
Speaking of the boring everyday humdrum, I observed an ant running around today and realised how beautifully free he is, than most of us...
A free ant, would feel alone and get depressed and eventually die
@@piccadelly9360 exactly, that ant is in one of the most horrendous and stressful points of it's life and yet to someone it is beutiful.
I completely agree that art is therapy!
One of the best orators I have ever seen.
I think sorting books by year is not that bad. For me it shows, how the thoughts of humanity have evolved. Most writers were genuinely smart guys, who had read a lot and knew the history of literature. Therefore they didn't write already said things, but improved the ideas of writers, and the ideas of society itself. I think having books sorted by date until 19th century is great approach to know understand the history of literature.
Brilliant!!
Incredible. The mic blends in with his shirt perfectly... Coincidence?
The *positive* sense of feeling small (when looking at the sky or ocean, for instance) is that you are thrown into a sublime, humbling perspective beside its vast, eonic magnificence - But, crucially, you also *know* that you _intrinsically belong within and as a part of it!_ - The *negative* aspect of _'being made to feel small'_ in life is the implied secondary message of "YOU do not belong!"
An incredible talk as always! something's that comes to mind the similarities between the 'balance' element of this talk and the 'balance' element of your talk on 'we should think more about sex'. Would you say that whether we look to balance ourselves via a partner containing qualities which we lacked during our upbringing from our mother or via a piece of art that fills the void of emotional emptiness they both along the same lines? By this I mean that depending on the type of person art may be a 'perfect partner' or a 'perfect partner' may be art.
I am watching it for the third time... Always enlightning
Thanks Alain, again I'm up too late being enlightened when I should be asleep...
I would really enjoy attending a talk by Alain. Ever near Portland, Oregon? :)
Thank you so much! This video is incredibly inspiring! This, in some way, sums up the mission of what I do, promote art ( I fonded Private Art Education on the notion that art makes us better in many aspects of life). I have an altruistic proposal, would you like if I translate this video into Russian language, audio or subtitle? I just wish more people learn about this idea of Art as Therapy. Would you please advise me whom to contact about it, thank you!
Alain has the most beautiful and comprehensive way of explaining the most misunderstood subjects. Kurt Veith
Amazing ♥️
Brazil couldn't be further from Niemeyer's ideals of simplicity, racionality and optimism, unfortunately. Now that he's gone, I hope they keep building structures similar to his until those underlying principles are (even if only moderately) absorbed by Brazilian society. Thank you so much for this wonderful channel, Alain!
Welll, in other aspects, he was also self entitled and very elitist, so.... I don't know if we really need more of that in our country.
+Juliana Selem: I think that Niemeyer's work looks ugly but not quite as bad as Le Corbusier's monstrosities and the Bauhaus and Soviet lavatory block style. No I don't believe that it is Brazil nor should it be. The best of modern architecture is in Dohar and Dubai. Read From Our House to Bauhaus by Tom Wolfe. And I did enjoy Alain's speech very much.
good content, thank you
Wish you think about all kind of art when give us examples not just paintings. But thanks, for your work.
40:00 I feel born again - thank you
good content, Thanks!
Intriguing and forward thinking spiritual view of art's power. I am an artist, I feel close to many of his views and I am not attached to any established religion..
The impact of art over our minds, the beauty in the eye of the beholders. The death of ideas is the right notice, because we are in a world who refuses to break up with its standards. A world sees the right from one inherited ideas and never challenge to question their truthfulness. They ruined the world and create a comfortable life that kills our ideas.
Love this man
Art has been my Therapy most of my life...I didn't know it but that's no surprise to me nor you if you know me at all.