"Over decades of psychotherapeutic work, Deary has witnessed the theater of change: how ordinary people get stuck, struggle with new circumstances, and finally transform for the better. He is keenly aware that novelists, poets, philosophers, and theologians have grappled with these experiences for far longer than psychologists. Drawing on his own personal experience and a ... range of literary, philosophical, and cultural sources, Deary has produced a ... portrait of the human condition"--Amazon.com.

List of figures -- Introduction -- 1 The Beaten Path -- Act 1: Saming -- 2 The Automatic -- Part 1-The Knack -- Part 2-The Gist -- Part 3-Pause for Thought -- 3 House Rules -- Part 1-A Room of our own -- Part 2-Common Rooms -- 4 Cosa Nostra -- 5 News from Elsewhere -- Act 2: Changing -- 6 First Impressions -- 7 Second Natures -- 8 Spellbound -- 9 Dancing Already -- Part 1-Response and Responsibility -- Part 2-Calls and Calling -- Acknowledgements.