Ebook-The courage To Be Desliked

Wow. How is Sigmund Freud a household name but Alfred Adler a mere afterthought, a footnote? Even as a pretty serious psychology autodidact and after taking numerous college classes (intro, child, adolescent, personality psychology) I must admit I didn't even recognize his name let alone his research or theories. But the Japanese are onto something, ahead of the rest of the world as it seems they tend to be (I just recently read about topics such as shinrin-yoku and nano-hydroxyapatite), ahead of the rest of the world.

Adlerian psychology AKA individual psychology is hopefully here to stay. You can see evidence of the culture shifting to corroborate its views—evidence of the coming to fruition of Alder's own prophecy on why he'd be forgotten: "The implication being that if his [ideas] were forgotten, it would be because [they] had outgrown the bounds of a single area of [philosophy], and become commonplace, and a feeling shared by everyone." Take for example the recent publication by bestselling author David Brooks; if you've read The Courage to Be Disliked, you'll immediately recognize the parallels to Adlerian psychology in the cover flap summary of The Second Mountain.

Really this isn't a self-help or personal growth book as much as it is an introductory philosophy book with the power to direct and transform your life. And it sets a new bar for me on which self help books are worth reading (some, not many) and which are garbage (most of them). Not to mention that using the format of Socratic dialogue in and of itself is just a brilliant choice by the authors. How this book can be rated anything below 5 stars is unfathomable by me, and makes me question my faith in humanity, the good judgment of the common person.