The Courage to Be Happy

September 30, 2019
Taking the form of a Socratic dialogue between a young educator and his mentor, this instructive and enjoyable follow-up to The Courage to Be Disliked extends Kishimi and Koga’s interpretation of Adlerian psychology from the philosopher’s study into the real world. In the three years that have elapsed since the first book, the young man in the dialogue has tried to implement Austrian psychotherapist Alfred Alder’s theories and failed to see their benefit when applied to unruly schoolchildren and returns to confront his former teacher. In a conversation lasting until dawn, the young man repeatedly protests what he sees as the abstract nature of Adler’s ideas and argues they are “divorced from reality.” In order to demonstrate the “self-reliance” that Adler considered the goal of education, the philosopher leads his former student to draw his own conclusions by modeling the methods he prescribes. Witnessing this exchange, the reader follows the young man’s path toward accepting the simplicity of Adler’s exhortation to “love, be self-reliant, and choose life,” however difficult it may be. Thanks to the summaries of key concepts and many digestible, koanlike insights, readers will find this an approachable introduction to many of Adler’s theories on learning and self-improvement.