Psychological Essays

Alfred Richard Orage (1873-1934) was born in Dacre, West Riding, Yorkshire, and was a schoolteacher in Leeds for twelve years, during which time he helped found the Leeds Arts Club. He moved to London in 1906, where he worked as editor of The New Age: A Weekly Review of Politics, Literature and Art, to which many well-known writers and intellectuals contributed. He was involved in socialism for a time, and was a supporter of the social credit system of C.H. Douglas. During the years 1922 to 1930, Orage worked with G.I. Gurdjieff in France and the United States, after which he returned to England, where he became editor of The New English Weekly. He died suddenly during the early morning of 6th November, 1934, having given a radio talk for the B.B.C. on Social Credit the evening before, apparently in good health.

Orage wrote wrote fifteen short Psychological Essays in the 1920s. They encompass such subjects as thought power and mental development, dealing with dark moods, the relationship between thought, feeling and body, the importance of active curiosity, observation, and so on. Although these can be read as stand-alone essays, they are very much connected with each other in the sequence given, and in their totality give a kind of recipe for living life to the full.

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