I heard Guy Winch interviewed on Paul Gilmartin’s Mental Health Happy Hour podcast. The concept of Emotional First Aid — a first aid kit to use for psychological hurts was immediately appealing, especially to someone who has always struggled with rejection and failure. I read the chapter on low self-esteem immediately, but then let the book languish, transferred from e-reader to e-reader as part of the furniture, never really considering whether I’d actually read it. I have no idea what prompted me to finally rescue Emotional First Aid from electronic purgatory — there was no desperate need for its tools, I just thought I’d clear it out of the way.
As another example, when we falter in our first dating efforts after a long dry spell of being alone, we rarely attribute the result to our having rusty dating skills and weak relationship muscles.
Emotional First Aid, Guy Winch
Guy Winch writes very clearly and accessibly about emotions and the first aid tools he recommends. There are a few references which feel uncomfortably dated, which can’t be helped given it was published in 2013. Despite that, the actual tools themselves sound, at least to a non-expert reader, like they would stand the test of time. Emotional First Aid wasn’t a struggle to read in any way, the information is laid out in digestible chunks and Guy Winch doesn’t labour any of his points for long enough to make them feel monotonous.
When our self-esteem is low, we are far less likely to attribute slips in willpower to mental and emotional fatigue (which are the more likely culprits) and far more likely to assume they reflect fundamental character deficits.
Emotional First Aid, Guy Winch
Emotional First Aid is still a non-fiction book, and not even particularly narrative non-fiction. It’s not engaging the way a novel or even a memoir might be. Guy Winch includes small stories of his patients, which are much appreciated and elevate the book beyond being merely useful. While reading it doesn’t feel like a chore, it’s still something you’re engaging with to benefit from, rather than from sheer enjoyment.
That said, it provides actually concrete steps and tools, something not all self-help books manage, so it gets points for that!
Chalk Letters Books 