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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
fast-paced
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Doing my best to speak from an "I" perspective, because this book seems to be so polarizing. Mostly this is for me to come back to one day, to jog my memory of what I felt while reading this.
This was recommended to me by a psychiatrist who mentored me during a medical school rotation. I hadn’t heard of Adlerian psychology, and I think there is a lot to be gained in understanding his work more, at least for me. A lot of the points weren’t easy to swallow on first listen, but I think its structure (a Socratic dialogue between a young scholar and old philosopher) gave me pleasant waves of nostalgia to my time in college taking an Intro to Philosophy, so I let myself fully buy into it, even if the wording and phrasing felt a little artificial or silly at times.
As with everything, no one thought is 100% right or right for everyone at a given point in time. Had I read this 5 years earlier or later, I may feel quite differently. There are threads that could be interpreted as "victim blaming," but I took these to mean that we are bigger than our pasts and our traumas, that we CAN take ownership over our situations and lives. What really resonated with me was the idea that etiology (vs teleology) and defining yourself (and thus your world) through the traumas you experienced can ultimately be deterministic and thus sort of a dead end. For me, it is really difficult to grow with that kind of mindset.
I also really loved the idea that true happiness/life fulfillment happens when we feel that we contribute to others WHILE ALSO maintaining our own freedom and remaining true to ourselves. This is distinct from being a people pleaser, where you may contribute but end up leaving no room for yourself. And contribution doesn't have to be material. It could simply be your presence, or the idea of your presence. It gives your worth back to you beyond, "what do you do for a living?". I think this is in line with the phrase "community feeling," which I also loved, although I don't know that I understand it enough to be able to explain it.
I’m glad to have read it at this point in my life and to add it to my toolbox of understanding of the world. It will definitely be something to revisit at another stage of my life.
This was recommended to me by a psychiatrist who mentored me during a medical school rotation. I hadn’t heard of Adlerian psychology, and I think there is a lot to be gained in understanding his work more, at least for me. A lot of the points weren’t easy to swallow on first listen, but I think its structure (a Socratic dialogue between a young scholar and old philosopher) gave me pleasant waves of nostalgia to my time in college taking an Intro to Philosophy, so I let myself fully buy into it, even if the wording and phrasing felt a little artificial or silly at times.
As with everything, no one thought is 100% right or right for everyone at a given point in time. Had I read this 5 years earlier or later, I may feel quite differently. There are threads that could be interpreted as "victim blaming," but I took these to mean that we are bigger than our pasts and our traumas, that we CAN take ownership over our situations and lives. What really resonated with me was the idea that etiology (vs teleology) and defining yourself (and thus your world) through the traumas you experienced can ultimately be deterministic and thus sort of a dead end. For me, it is really difficult to grow with that kind of mindset.
I also really loved the idea that true happiness/life fulfillment happens when we feel that we contribute to others WHILE ALSO maintaining our own freedom and remaining true to ourselves. This is distinct from being a people pleaser, where you may contribute but end up leaving no room for yourself. And contribution doesn't have to be material. It could simply be your presence, or the idea of your presence. It gives your worth back to you beyond, "what do you do for a living?". I think this is in line with the phrase "community feeling," which I also loved, although I don't know that I understand it enough to be able to explain it.
I’m glad to have read it at this point in my life and to add it to my toolbox of understanding of the world. It will definitely be something to revisit at another stage of my life.
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
reflective
tense
slow-paced