Hello! My name is Monica, and I am a people pleaser. When I saw The Courage to be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga I knew I needed to read it. The courage to be disliked is something I need in my life! The cover of the book is simple, yet elegant. Peaceful. I like the colors and the image. It’s definitely inviting. I was very excited to read it and gain all this wisdom and knowledge—and change my life! Then, I opened the book to the introduction. Maybe I should have realized this beforehand, but I didn’t. The entire book is written in dialogue form. The whole thing is a big conversation. Honestly, I was upset but decided to give it a try and keep reading. I’m sure there are great amounts of wisdom in this book, but I don’t think I’m smart enough to glean them from the text. I read the whole book, and the conversational format completely threw me off. Philosophy is not my jam. I know the names of Freud, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, but I have no idea what they taught or discussed. Yes, I’m showing my own ineptitude here, but that’s why I wanted to read the book. I wanted to learn and understand more about philosophy. In my opinion, this book is not the way to go to do that. What did I want? Well, I need a philosophy for dummies book. Start at the very beginning and explain, in detail, who the philosophers are and what they believe or teach. Give definitions, examples, and more examples so I can highlight them, take notes in the margins, and have time to think and process the info. The conversational format did not allow for that at all. The conversation moved on and left my understanding lying on the ground behind it. Another thing I had a difficult time with was that there are several anti-Christian references, which I didn't like. He also makes it seem like you can just think your way out of ADHD and mental illness. Sorry--I live with and love a few people with ADHD and mental illness, and it’s not that easy. If you have more of a background in philosophy and psychology, and if you understand the different philosophies of Freud and Adler, then this book may be more for you! Did I gain the courage to be disliked from The Courage to be Disliked? Ummmm…no. Sadly, I did not. It’s ok, though! I’ll keep working on it! Content Rating: PG -Profanity: None -Intimacy: None -Violence: None Age Recommendation: 16+ (Younger readers will not understand or care.) 3/5 stars

I just finished this book and found it to be a really nice gelling of many truths I have come upon over my years on Earth. It also ended up being very compatible with a journey towards minimalism that I have been on. For me, the pursuit of minimalism is about being able to live more in the here and now, which is a huge part of the philosophy presented in this book. I want minimalism to be an ongoing lifestyle for me. I started it because I want to move across the country and it didn’t make sense to bring a bunch of junk… and on this journey into minimalism I have learned so much that I want to continue it after we move. This has been an effort now of two years to move (have had a few things holding us in place, one of them being the glacial movement of the American housing market starting in fall of 2022) so it has also been important to me to not wait until we have moved to be happy, even though I don’t really want to be in our current location anymore. So part of my journey is how do I be happy in the now as I work DILIGENTLY on my aspirations - and as it turns out, that is very compatible with minimalism. It also ended up being a central theme in this book and the philosophy as a whole is very compatible with minimalism. If you read it, I hope you enjoy it!

Good books to read

Easy to read and teaches you some life lessons. I’ve read better book from my perspective but this book is not bad at all.

Life changing, happy to have crossed paths with this book. This is one I'll be sure to share with my children in the future!

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. I hope the tides of history turn, that in 50 years it's not Fraud (oops I mean Freud) who will be revered as the father of modern psychology but that Alfred Adler will rightly take his place with that title. I think it's high time we start to reject the pitifully ineffective disease/disorder paradigm of mental health which has been corrupted by the vices of allopathic medicine (which does have its virtues in other contexts) and start to embrace the more humanistic, holistic, positive growth, teleological (wink wink) approaches to psychology and mental health. Look at the world: current events, mental health statistics, etc. Our current way of doing things (especially in America) is not working. Adlerian psychology is right here under our noses, a beacon of hope waiting to be shone and shown to others. Which is what I implore you to do once you've finished reading this book: show it to others! Buy it for them if you have to! I have already bought 3 other copies as gifts to people in my life....you can trust my review because I'm already putting my money where my mouth is. READ THIS BOOK especially if you have not already scaled your "second mountain"