Emotional schemas are implicit learnings—"if-then" rules encoded in emotional memory—that predict what will happen if we do certain things. They're not thoughts we consciously believe. They're felt truths that live in our bodies and guide our behaviour automatically.

What if everything you've been taught about human nature is wrong? What if the cynicism baked into our institutions, our media, our parenting, and even our therapy models is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of who we are? These are the questions Rutger Bregman tackles in his book Humankind: A Hopeful History, and their implications for mental health are profound and far-reaching.

Terry Real's book Us: Getting Past You and Me to Build a More Loving Relationship offers a radical challenge to how we've been taught to think about relationships, mental health, and personal growth in contemporary Western culture.