Philosophy can be a source of help for our most painful everyday problems. Dividing his work into six sections - each highlighting a different psychic ailment and the appropriate philosopher - de Botton offers consolation for unpopularity from Socrates, for not having enough money from Epicurus, for frustration from Seneca, for inadequacy from Montaigne, and for a broken heart from Schopenhaver (the darkest of thinkers and yet, paradoxically, the most cheering). Consolation for envy - and, of course, the final word on consolation - comes from Nietzsche: "Not everything which makes us feel better is good for us."