Self-Help from the Middle Ages

What can a 12th-century monk teach us about burnout, envy and despair?Long before today's self-help culture, medieval thinkers developed sophisticated ways of understanding anxiety, failure and how to live well in times of upheaval.Historian Peter Jones explores these ideas in 'Self-Help from the Middle Ages', with fellow historian and author of 'Sceptred Isle: A New History of the Fourteenth Century', Helen Carr.

In conversation with broadcaster and medievalist Eleanor Janega, they consider how medieval writers made sense of the human psyche, and why their ideas still resonate today.