The courage to be disliked

Self-help

Print length: 288 pagesAtria Books, 2018

Description

A dissatisfied young man confronts a philosopher whose ideas seem to deny everything he believes about suffering, personality, and the power of the past. Their extended conversation uses Alfred Adler’s psychology to test a provocative claim: people need not remain defined by earlier experiences or by the expectations of others. The young man challenges each proposition, forcing the philosopher to explain how interpersonal conflict, the desire for approval, and self-imposed limitations restrict freedom. Happiness, the philosopher argues, requires the courage to change one’s attitudes even at the risk of being disliked. Structured as an argumentative dialogue rather than a conventional manual, the book invites readers to examine where responsibility for a life begins.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Conversational · Dialogue-driven · Direct

Pace

Moderate

Tone

Cerebral · Earnest · Hopeful · Philosophical

Structure

Argumentative

Focus

Argument · Ideas · Relationships

Emotional intensity

2 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 2 / 5
Ideas: 4 / 5
Structure: 2 / 5
Background knowledge: 2 / 5

Themes

BelongingFreedomIdentityMental healthPowerTransformation

About Ichirō Kishimi

Ichirō Kishimi is a Japanese philosopher and psychologist whose writing brings Western ancient philosophy and Adlerian psychology into direct conversation with the pressures of ordinary life. His best-known work, co-authored with Fumitake Koga, favors argumentative dialogue over conventional self-help instruction. In The Courage to Be Disliked, a skeptical young man presses a philosopher on trauma, approval, interpersonal conflict, and whether the past determines the present. The Courage to Be Happy returns to that exchange in the practical settings of education, work, love, and lasting relationships. Kishimi develops his ideas through challenge and reply, making abstract claims answerable to persistent objections and concrete choices.

About Fumitake Koga

Fumitake Koga is a Japanese author who writes about psychological freedom through philosophical dialogue. His work is shaped less by the conventions of the self-help manual than by sustained argument: a skeptical young man presses a philosopher to defend Adlerian ideas against doubt and resistance. In The Courage to Be Disliked, this exchange examines whether past experience determines the present and how the pursuit of approval, interpersonal conflict, and self-imposed limits can restrict a person’s choices. Koga’s direct, conversational method keeps abstract questions of responsibility and happiness tied to the practical difficulty of changing how one lives.

Book details

For the print edition listed above.

Publisher: Atria Books
Language: English
ISBN: 9781501197277

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