Sue Stuart-Smith

A distinguished psychiatrist and avid gardener offers an inspiring and consoling work about the healing effects of gardening and its ability to decrease stress and foster mental well-being in our everyday lives. The garden is often seen as a refuge, a place to forget worldly cares, removed from the “real” life that lies outside. But when we get our hands in the earth we connect with the cycle of life in nature through which destruction and decay are followed by regrowth and renewal. Gardening is one of the quintessential nurturing activities and yet we understand so little about it. The Well-Gardened Mind provides a new perspective on the power of gardening to change people’s lives. Here, Sue Stuart-Smith investigates the many ways in which mind and garden can interact and explores how the process of tending a plot can be a way of sustaining an innermost self. Stuart-Smith’s own love of gardening developed as she studied to become a psychoanalytic psychotherapist. From her grandfather’s return from World War I to Freud’s obsession with flowers to case histories with her own patients to progressive gardening programs in such places as Rikers Island prison in New York City, Stuart-Smith weaves thoughtful yet powerful examples to argue that gardening is much more important to our cognition than we think. Recent research is showing how green nature has direct antidepressant effects on humans. Essential and pragmatic, The Well-Gardened Mind is a book for gardeners and the perfect read for people seeking healthier mental lives.

The Restorative Power of Nature

The Well-Gardened Mind

Un jardín es un refugio ideal para huir del ajetreo del mundo y conectar con la naturaleza. . Investigaciones recientes demuestran que, cuando practican la jardinería, los presos tienen menos probabilidades de reincidir, los jóvenes en riesgo de exclusión tienden a perseverar en el sistema educativo y los ancianos viven más y mejor. La mente bien ajardinada es una combinación de neurociencia, literatura, historia y psicoanálisis que indaga en el secreto que muchos jardineros conocen desde siempre: el contacto con la naturaleza puede transformar radicalmente nuestra salud y nuestra autoestima.

el redescubrimiento de la naturaleza en el mundo moderno

La Mente bien ajardinada

How can getting outdoors help us to look after our mental health? In a powerful combination of contemporary neuroscience, psychoanalysis and brilliant storytelling, The Well Gardened Mind investigates the magic that many gardeners have known for years, working with nature can radically transform our health, wellbeing and confidence. Prisoners given the chance to grow plants are less likely to reoffend. At-risk young people who get their hands in the soil are more likely to stay in education. Elderly people who garden live longer and have a better quality of life. Sue Stuart-Smith tells brilliant, illuminating stories of people struggling with stress, depression, trauma and addiction, from asylum seekers to veterans, inner-city young people to the retired. This is a glorious book of science, insight and anecdote that shows how our understanding of nature and its restorative powers is only just beginning to flower.

Rediscovering Nature in the Modern World

The Well Gardened Mind

‘The wisest book I’ve read for many years ... Much more than a gardening book, much more than a guide to mental health ... Hugely recommended’ Stephen Fry THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER A Times and Sunday Times Best Book of 2020

The Well Gardened Mind: Rediscovering Nature in the Modern World

Coltivare il giardino della mente. Il potere riparatore della natura

Qui soigne son jardin soigne son âme : s’occuper ne serait-ce que de quelques fleurs à sa fenêtre aide à se reconnecter à soi et aux autres. Voltaire ne disait-il pas qu’il « faut cultiver notre jardin » ? Grâce au jardinage, les prisonniers récidivent moins, les ados à risques retrouvent des repères, les personnes souffrant de syndrome post-traumatique gagnent une forme d’apaisement, les personnes âgées une meilleure forme physique et morale... et tout le monde y trouve son équilibre. S’appuyant sur les données scientifiques et sur son expérience de psychiatre et de psychanalyste, tout autant que sur sa pratique, vitale pour elle, du jardinage, Sue Stuart-Smith, explore le pouvoir re ́parateur du lien avec la nature. Best-seller en Angleterre, traduit dans dix langues, un livre inspirant sur les effets thérapeutiques du jardinage et sa capacité à apaiser notre stress dans le monde moderne. Sue Stuart-Smith, psychiatre, psychanalyste, enseigne à la Tavistock Clinic de Londres. Avec son mari, Tom Stuart-Smith, paysagiste anglais, ils ont créé le magnifique Barn Garden, dans le Herfordshire. « Les jardins et la nature sont souvent plus efficaces que n’importe quel me ́dicament. » Oliver Sacks

Sue Stuart-Smith

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