MY LATEST BOOKS
The Story-Solution: Change Your Toxic Self-Stories and Thrive (Out in January 2026)
Trapped in toxic narratives?
Rewrite your self-story | Edit away negativity | Step into happiness
Have you ever told yourself one of these? I'm stupid... I'm ugly... I'm bad...I'm the best... I'm a victim... I'm different... We all tell ourselves stories to make sense of our place in the world and why we are the way we are. Sadly, the most damaging ones often dominate and hold us back. In The Story Solution, I identify the six core self-blaming and world-blaming stories, revealing how to break free from these self-sabotaging scripts and release yourself from their grip. Mixing psychological insights, case studies and practical guidance, this empowering guide will help you to rewrite your self-story in five accessible steps and learn how to grow, thrive and prosper.
Exhausted: An A-Z for the Weary
Burnout is said to be the defining feeling of the post-pandemic world - but why are we all so exhausted? Some of us struggle with perfectionism, while others are simply overwhelmed by the demands of modern life. But whatever you're feeling, you are not alone - and this liberating, enlightening guide to exhaustion in all its forms will help you find the energy to beat burnout and weariness. From confronting our inner critics to how our desire to be productive stops us from being free, I bring together science, medicine, literature and philosophy to explore the causes and history of exhaustion and burnout, revealing new ways to combat stress and negativity. Inventive and freewheeling, full of comfort, solace and practical advice, Exhausted is an inspiring guide to getting control of your own exhaustion - and rediscovering happiness along the way.
The Art of Self-Improvement: Ten Timeless Truths
Self-help today is a multi-billion-dollar global industry, one often seen as a by-product of neoliberalism and capitalism. Far from being a recent phenomenon, however, the practice of self-improvement has a long and rich history, extending all the way back to ancient China. For millennia, philosophers, sages, and theologians have reflected on the good life and devised strategies on how to achieve it.
Exhaustion: A History
Today our fatigue feels chronic; our anxieties, amplified. Proliferating technologies command our attention. Many people complain of burnout, and economic instability and the threat of ecological catastrophe fill us with dread. We look to the past, imagining life to have once been simpler and slower, but extreme mental and physical stress is not a modern syndrome.
The Truth About Julia
A taut debut psychological novel which asks the question - can there be one single truth? How many versions of the truth can there be? In June 2014, Julia White - a beautiful and intelligent young woman - blows up a coffee shop in central London, killing twenty-four people before turning herself in to the police. Apart from publishing a potentially ironic manifesto, she refuses to explain the reasons for her actions.
WHAT OTHER PEOPLE HAVE SAID ABOUT MY BOOKS
Exhaustion is a "wide-ranging, discerning history’ and an ‘enlightening, elegantly written study of exhaustion as a phenomenon firmly rooted in the confluence of medical knowledge, cultural beliefs, and social critique. Reading the book offers a two-thousand-year tour through western medical paradigms as well as a trenchant analysis of how theories of exhaustion express both a historically specific social criticism and timeless concerns about ageing, waning energy, and the spectre of death. Exhaustion is a compelling and though-provoking read for doctors, historians, and medical humanists."
— Susan K. Cahn, Journal of the History of Medicine
"Exhaustion is […] an impressive achievement, with relevance to anyone concerned with the socially contingent process by which illness is defined. By drawing attention to the 'reality generating' quality of metaphors and similes that inform the way patients 'interpret, and narrativize their symptoms', it joins a growing body of literature that emphasizes the vital importance of subjective factors in mapping the terrain of ill health."
— Stuart Bradwell, History of Psychiatry
Exhaustion is a "thoughtful and wide-ranging" study "of the exhaustive historic literature on the causes of fatigue, including an imbalance of the four humors, the influence of the planets (specifically, Saturn), spiritual failing, and a reaction to loss."
— Gary Drevich, Psychology Today
"Schaffner’s Exhaustion is ambitious, provocative and original."
— Natasha Feiner, Social History of Medicine
Exhaustion: A History is an ‘imaginative and ambitious work’ that offers ‘rich materials with which to think about exhaustion. Work such as this lets us engage in imaginative emotional time-travel of a kind that acknowledges a shared humanity as well as cultural difference.’
— Thomas Dixon, TLS