A Review of the Book "The Courage to be Disliked" by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga

Title: The Courage to be Disliked

Author: Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Year: 2013

264 pages

From the Back: Is happiness something you choose for yourself? The Courage to be Disliked presents a simple and straightforward answer. Using the theories of Alfred Adler, one of three giants of 19th-century psychology, alongside Freud and Jung, this book follows an illuminating dialogue between a philosopher and a young man. Over the course of five conversations, the philosopher helps his student to understand how each of us is able to determine the direction of our own life, free from the shackles of past traumas and the expectations of others.

Personal Thoughts: This book has been on my to-be-read pile for a long time and I finally decided it was time for me to crack it open. I was really looking forward to it as it has come with all sorts of accolades and recommendations, especially for someone like me who constantly looks for external validation instead of looking within.

    Overall, the book did not disappoint in content. I had so many aha! moments throughout and I had to take my time reading it as I was often pausing to ponder a point or consider how a topic applied to me and my life. Where I find fault in the book, however, is in it's delivery. It was written in conversational form which was distracting as it felt forced and fake. Which I get, it wasn't a real conversation. Or if it was and the book attempted to be a verbatim record of that conversation, then it must have been on awkward conversation.

    Despite that, this is a book that I will likely keep close at hand as I work through why I react to life's moments in the way that I do, and there are certainly people that come to mind I feel would benefit from reading the book. As it says on the back of the book, "Reading this book could change your life."