Human beings are naturally gregarious.

Of Howard Gardner’s famous multiplicity of intelligences, many commentators have ranked Social Smart right up there. Learning to get on with each other is surely the single most important lesson we learn at school. If Eye were in charge, graduation to Big School would be dependent on whether children were able to pass a simple, continually assessed examination with two components: Don’t spill your drink, and play nicely.

The thought of hairy-legged six-footers sitting cross-legged on the mat while teacher reads a hometime story is a little unsettling, but would be a fair price to pay to ensure that only students who prove that they can indeed get on with other people would be allowed to graduate to the next stage of their education.

A while ago Eye Books had the privilege to conduct a children’s Literacy and Wellbeing workshop. The discussions were wide-ranging in their content and insight (much more from the children than from us, I should add). We were heartened by the number of them who suggested, in the first place, that talking to a friend was the best way to “get back to wellness” if there are warning signs about moving out of that zone. Rather less encouraging was the suggestion that seeing a psychiatrist might be the next step!

Counselling, psychotherapy, psycho-analysis all have their place in our complex modern world, and their benefits have proved to be literally life-saving, but how often do we overlook the simple remedies as a first port of call. A (moderate amount of) beer in the pub after work on a Friday; a long phone conversation with a dear old friend, while nestled into a favourite armchair…

We are soon to launch Maria Katsonis’ The Mind Thief, a harrowing but ultimately uplifting account of a complete breakdown, and crucially the recovery. When compiling the list of organisations and helplines as an appendix to the book we were struck by the same thing that the workshop children had come up with: at the top of the list of resources from sane.org.uk, was the simple advice to call or text a friend.

Jean-Paul Sartre, gloommonger extraordinaire, said that “Hell is other people”. But if you think back to the best times in your life, for how many of them were you on your own? We are not designed to be alone. It’s great if we can be content in our own company for a while, but surely as a way of preparing ourselves for the minefield that is the real world of other people.

The Mind Thief, by Maria Katsonis, will be released in July, but is available at a pre-publication discount now.