The Courage to be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga

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I listened to The Courage to Be Disliked as I ran earlier this year, and it was a curious experience. I think listening to it was best, as it was designed as a question/answer discussion format between a teacher and a student. It explored something called Individual Psychology (Adlerian Psychology) which was developed by Alfred Adler at a similar time to Freud’s psychoanalysis.

The key concepts of it included:

• trauma doesn’t exist
• all human problems stem from interpersonal relationships
• separation of tasks
• goal of interpersonal relationships is to develop community feeling

Some parts felt oversimplified, which had the danger of not having enough nuance. However, as a text it achieved a satisfactory world view which championed individual autonomy and the ability to change ones circumstances.

Where it differs from conventional understanding of psychology is listed below:

• determinism vs freedom - rejecting trauma as an excuse
• Individual vs social focus - treating social relationships as the source of all problems & solutions
• Self-esteem vs self-acceptance - accepting yourself regardless of other peoples opinions
• Symptoms treatment vs lifestyle change - Adler advocated for holistic lifestyle changes (worldview & values) instead of individually treating problems.

Overall, an empowering book.

Listend to some time while running in 2025

Created by Apurva Shukla.

• ← Almond by Sohn Won-Pyung
• The Plague by Albert Camus →