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Ichiro Kishimi 2 Books Collection Set
Titles In This1. The Courage To Be Disliked2. The Courage to be HappyThe Courage To Be DislikedCan we be happy? Psychology might just hold the key ... Millions have already read and benefited from the wisdom dispensed in The Courage To Be Disliked, its simple yetprofound advice showing us how to harness our inner power to become the person we would like to be.Using the theories of Alfred Adler, one of the three giants of twentieth-century psychology alongside Freud and Jung, a philosopher and a young man have a discussion.Their conversation reveals a profoundly liberating way of by developing the courage to change and to ignore the limitations so frequently imposed upon us, it ispossible to find happiness.The Courage to be HappyThe sequel to the bestselling international phenomenon The Courage To Be Disliked, The Courage To Be Happy offers a profound insight into the way we should live our lives.As with The Courage To Be Disliked, we follow a conversation between a philosopher and a young man. The philosopher believes the key to a life of happiness and fulfilment lies in changing the way we think. Patiently, he explains to the doubtfulyoung man the 'psychology of courage', taking him through the mental steps necessary to achieve it, and demonstrating the changes it will bring to the way we live our lives.This is a work that is truly life-changing in its power, and universally applicable in its scope.
544 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2019
125 people are currently reading
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
November 15, 2020
Great book with an interesting perspective on Adlerian psychology. Loved the line “Deterministic thinking is for the birds”. The key take away for me is that 1) people can change and develop as much as they like 2) no experience in itself is the cause of our success or failure including childhood trauma 3) change my mean getting hurt and disappointed 4) self obsession leads to a loss of perspective, focus on our contribution to the global community.
January 27, 2022
One of the hardest books to rate and have a clear opinion about, and here’s why:
1. The way it was written; The dialogue was poorly written, it was very repetitive and extremely boring to be listened to
2. Denying trauma: you cannot tell people that you deny trauma and demand to be listened to. trauma cannot be denied !! a person’s past cannot be changed but what can be changed is to how to deal with such trauma, How about acknowledging what others went through and also demanding them to take responsibility for their lives ?? Denying someone’s pain isn’t a healthy nor productive here dude.
3. The ideas: The idea of one’s responsibility for how yheir lives go is actually very valid and one the first things to do when approaching therapy is taking that responsibility at hand not to blame others and point fingers, but this step isn’t for everyone. The part about the pursuit of superiority and the pursuit of easy superiority actually made so much sense to me. But again that needed so much more attention and examples you didn’t provide.
4. The title of the book: this one really made me angry, the title of the book had no connection whatsoever to what is inside. it could’ve been a lot of other things like the courage to be normal for example!!
5. Creating feelings : that was bullshit, all feelings are valid and real, the ideas behind them is what we try to work on
So yeah, this book could’ve been the greatest book ever written cause the ideas have lots of potential there, but they way it was written was absurd and mind numbing which made people ( including me ) unsatisfied with it. A lot of ideas need it further explanation to be understood clearly and discussed logically instead of the youth repeating every damn sentence!!
2 stars for now and a plan to reread it or read in adlerian psychology in general
1. The way it was written; The dialogue was poorly written, it was very repetitive and extremely boring to be listened to
2. Denying trauma: you cannot tell people that you deny trauma and demand to be listened to. trauma cannot be denied !! a person’s past cannot be changed but what can be changed is to how to deal with such trauma, How about acknowledging what others went through and also demanding them to take responsibility for their lives ?? Denying someone’s pain isn’t a healthy nor productive here dude.
3. The ideas: The idea of one’s responsibility for how yheir lives go is actually very valid and one the first things to do when approaching therapy is taking that responsibility at hand not to blame others and point fingers, but this step isn’t for everyone. The part about the pursuit of superiority and the pursuit of easy superiority actually made so much sense to me. But again that needed so much more attention and examples you didn’t provide.
4. The title of the book: this one really made me angry, the title of the book had no connection whatsoever to what is inside. it could’ve been a lot of other things like the courage to be normal for example!!
5. Creating feelings : that was bullshit, all feelings are valid and real, the ideas behind them is what we try to work on
So yeah, this book could’ve been the greatest book ever written cause the ideas have lots of potential there, but they way it was written was absurd and mind numbing which made people ( including me ) unsatisfied with it. A lot of ideas need it further explanation to be understood clearly and discussed logically instead of the youth repeating every damn sentence!!
2 stars for now and a plan to reread it or read in adlerian psychology in general
September 26, 2024
Ralph Marston once wrote, “Happiness is a choice, not a result. Nothing will make you happy until you choose to be happy. No person will make you happy unless you decide to be happy.” This displays a similar theme as the book, The Courage to Be Happy by Fumitake Koga and Ichiro Kishim. The book is a sequel to the best-selling book The Courage to Be Disliked. The author’s wrote this book in order to convey the theory of Adlerian psychology – everyone should live a life true to themselves as well as the importance of self-acceptance.
The book is fully based on a conversation between a philosopher and a young man. Through their conversations, the philosopher leads the young man and the reader to understand that most of the obstacles faced in life while trying to attain happiness are self brought on and all one has to do is change the way they think. There are many topics covered in this book such as, the courage to chase true happiness, the concept of self value and how powerful choices one makes can be. The philosopher explains to the young man that happiness comes in accepting who you are and living true to yourself. The format of this book allows for a thorough investigation into the concepts brought up and allows readers to more fully relate and interpret these ideas.
Throughout the book The Courage to Be Happy there were many positives. One positive is that the theme is really well portrayed by the examples and the ideas are simple to understand. Another reason that I enjoyed the book is because the ideas are easy to interpret and one can apply the idea to their personal situations
On the other hand, there were multiple times that I noticed there was something I disliked. One being that these ideas might seem easier to apply to real life situations than they really are. In addition, the book displays some situations that many people will not end up dealing with throughout their lives and some of the problems are simple problems not the complicated situations a teenager might have trouble handling.
Overall, if you're looking for a book that makes you truly wonder about the concept of happiness and how to achieve it, I one hundred percent recommend the book The Courage to Be Happy. In addition, the book can be extremely relatable in some instances as well as reassuring. This book can possibly end up changing your life positively in ways such as guiding you to find true happiness and allowing one to become the best possible version of themselves.
May 4, 2021
The philosopher and the youth are back; three years after their meeting in The Courage to be Disliked the youth returns, disillusioned, after having become a teacher and tried out Adlerian psychology on his students, with disastrous results. So he’s back for a second round with his Adlerian mentor, to thrash out the whys and wherefores of courage and respect, the abandonment of reward and punishment, cooperation over competition, friendship, community and love.
When I read The Courage to be Disliked I found much sense in what it said, although I had to grapple with it to some extent. In the second instalment, however, I didn’t need to grapple too much, which was good, but neither did I find the arguments as convincing. The precepts for respecting people for who they are, and attempting to love all members of the community (after having first found love for oneself, without which we cannot love others, according to Adlerian psychology, it seems) left me unconvinced. The appear to presuppose the facility for ‘normal’ thinking within all people and, as some of the people whom I have interacted (and still do in some cases) have not been quite up to the mark in this respect, I wondered quite how that might work. I duly googled the question, and found that yes, its may be less effective in people who have little insight or who do not want to explore early childhood events.
So the first book convinced me, the second wasn’t quite so successful; which is not the fault of the authors, who faithfully laid out Adlerian psychology in a practical and readable manner. Like many other theories, the ideas of Adler are open to criticism; but if I hadn’t read these texts I would never have been motivated to go online and find out more about it. Good work.
When I read The Courage to be Disliked I found much sense in what it said, although I had to grapple with it to some extent. In the second instalment, however, I didn’t need to grapple too much, which was good, but neither did I find the arguments as convincing. The precepts for respecting people for who they are, and attempting to love all members of the community (after having first found love for oneself, without which we cannot love others, according to Adlerian psychology, it seems) left me unconvinced. The appear to presuppose the facility for ‘normal’ thinking within all people and, as some of the people whom I have interacted (and still do in some cases) have not been quite up to the mark in this respect, I wondered quite how that might work. I duly googled the question, and found that yes, its may be less effective in people who have little insight or who do not want to explore early childhood events.
So the first book convinced me, the second wasn’t quite so successful; which is not the fault of the authors, who faithfully laid out Adlerian psychology in a practical and readable manner. Like many other theories, the ideas of Adler are open to criticism; but if I hadn’t read these texts I would never have been motivated to go online and find out more about it. Good work.
August 18, 2024
Second book not as good as the first but still very insightful
January 12, 2022
I've always been interested in philosophy and psychology, but often found books on both matters either extremely dry, too other worldly, or too self-helpy. I read both these books after a very busy & intense time, and they both made me slow down, stop, and reflect - for the better. A simple tale of a young boy whose a little lost in the world, seeking help and insight from a wiser, older man. The simple dialogue between the two makes Adler's philosophy really easy to digest and take on board, and I found myself writing notes and self-reflections in the margins of nearly every page. I definitely felt a shift in me when reading these books, they did me the world of good. I plan to read them again and again, whenever things get a bit much.
January 29, 2023
The Courage to be Disliked changed my life. Well, more accurately, I changed my life in response to what I read in the Courage to be Disliked.
I read the book because the title challenged me, and to me, there is nothing quite like facing narratives that challenge my perception of the world. Perhaps for this reason I was very open to all that teleology and Adelerian Psychology/Philosophy have to offer.
Since the first read, I have read The Courage to be Disliked several times and The Courage to be Happy once. The Courage to be Happy leaves us on a note that Adler did not prescribe fundamentalist adherence to his understanding of what it is to be happy in life. We are encouraged to go forward in our lives and have our own experiences, adding, changing, and modifying these concepts as we learn and change.
For example, "Day 1: Deny Trauma Chapter 3: Trauma does not exist" is usually where I lose folks when discussing The Courage to be Disliked. I still remember getting grumpy about those titles while reading the first time, myself!
The theme here is not to deny one's self or to gaslight a person into thinking that trauma is not real, rather it seeks to redefine our relationship to traumatic events in our lives and to strive forward away from inevitable traumatic events without allowing them to rule the choices we make in the here and now.
In response and with understanding I gained from "The Body Keeps the Score" by Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D., I have changed how I discuss the concepts in these chapters.
I think it is important to separate "trauma" from "traumatic events".
Traumatic events are those things that occur in our lives that sharply impact us in negative ways. Whether an event is traumatic is in the eye of the beholder.
Trauma is the process of living within the emotions of traumatic events in the present, the here and now.
My most recent and important courageous step has been to allow traumatic events to exist in my timeline where they occurred. To strive to be present in moments when the fastest neural pathway flows into my trauma state. To feel those emotions, allow and accept them, and let them pass rather than succumbing to their power.
With an open mind, The Courage to be Disliked and The Courage to be Happy can encourage a person to choose their world by choosing their perception. To feel that they belong simply because they exist. To set aside the expectations they hold for others in the same way they strive to live for themselves rather than the expectations of others.
I love these books, and I am certain I will read them several times in my life as encouragement rather than a return to fundamentals. Above all, I will strive to choose courage and be a source of encouragement to others.
I read the book because the title challenged me, and to me, there is nothing quite like facing narratives that challenge my perception of the world. Perhaps for this reason I was very open to all that teleology and Adelerian Psychology/Philosophy have to offer.
Since the first read, I have read The Courage to be Disliked several times and The Courage to be Happy once. The Courage to be Happy leaves us on a note that Adler did not prescribe fundamentalist adherence to his understanding of what it is to be happy in life. We are encouraged to go forward in our lives and have our own experiences, adding, changing, and modifying these concepts as we learn and change.
For example, "Day 1: Deny Trauma Chapter 3: Trauma does not exist" is usually where I lose folks when discussing The Courage to be Disliked. I still remember getting grumpy about those titles while reading the first time, myself!
The theme here is not to deny one's self or to gaslight a person into thinking that trauma is not real, rather it seeks to redefine our relationship to traumatic events in our lives and to strive forward away from inevitable traumatic events without allowing them to rule the choices we make in the here and now.
In response and with understanding I gained from "The Body Keeps the Score" by Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D., I have changed how I discuss the concepts in these chapters.
I think it is important to separate "trauma" from "traumatic events".
Traumatic events are those things that occur in our lives that sharply impact us in negative ways. Whether an event is traumatic is in the eye of the beholder.
Trauma is the process of living within the emotions of traumatic events in the present, the here and now.
My most recent and important courageous step has been to allow traumatic events to exist in my timeline where they occurred. To strive to be present in moments when the fastest neural pathway flows into my trauma state. To feel those emotions, allow and accept them, and let them pass rather than succumbing to their power.
With an open mind, The Courage to be Disliked and The Courage to be Happy can encourage a person to choose their world by choosing their perception. To feel that they belong simply because they exist. To set aside the expectations they hold for others in the same way they strive to live for themselves rather than the expectations of others.
I love these books, and I am certain I will read them several times in my life as encouragement rather than a return to fundamentals. Above all, I will strive to choose courage and be a source of encouragement to others.
August 24, 2024
"Never judge a book by its cover or title." Though I was aware that this book is the successor to The Courage to Be Disliked, I ended up reading "The courage to be Happy" first. I found it to be more of a guide on how to navigate life in a balanced and emotionally healthy way. What resonated with me the most was the insightful observation that in our personal narratives, we often fall into the trap of playing the victim ("Poor me") or blaming others ("That bad person"). This book, however, shifts the focus toward a more empowering mindset: "What should I do from now on?" That, for me, was the key takeaway.
December 2, 2025
If you have lost yourself and could not stop making your life miserable by constant comparisons this book is for you And trust me it will not preach something theoretical or something feminist woo woo or being nonchalant towards everything In life but will develop god damn understanding about life plus this book is a conversation between a philosopher and an adult so all your doubts will be cleared and not if all , I think maybe almost will
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November 9, 2022To change is to die and become a new person.
The key ingredients of happiness are respect in others, confidence in friends and the courage to love. As we grow into adulthood, we are no longer the centre of attention so instead of waiting to be loved by a destined someone, we have to love with an open heart and shape our own destiny.
The key ingredients of happiness are respect in others, confidence in friends and the courage to love. As we grow into adulthood, we are no longer the centre of attention so instead of waiting to be loved by a destined someone, we have to love with an open heart and shape our own destiny.
March 18, 2022
The character constantly yelling at and insulting the older character was difficult to tolerate and did not make sense to me. (Audio version)
Best takeaway: Love is self reliance, it's becoming an adult. That's why it's difficult.
Best takeaway: Love is self reliance, it's becoming an adult. That's why it's difficult.
May 4, 2022
The first book is great. The second one is exceptional.
May 29, 2025
Absolutely amazing book again as the previous one. Diving deeper and solidifying the concept, really motivating me to practice and live that knowledge. I think people are more and more going to be interested in Adler’s philosophy and finding true peace and happiness within oneself. Have the courage to read this book humbly and practice the thing that most resonates with you. Let’s all live in the new era!!!
October 26, 2022
This is completely a different thing to what present-day psychology defends. This book is based on Adlerian psychology and is fused with philosophy which can certainly open one's eyes and help a lot in one's life journey. Not only that, but as a Christian, it seems that it can be used complementarily to the Bible. It is so much simpler and easier to understand things through it.
December 5, 2022
The Courage to be happy is a follow up to the courage to be disliked but it takes on a very difficult to extract subject matter and extrapolates on it patiently. I love this series. The books beg for re-reads as Adlerian psychology is quite fascinating. I took one day to read this. Very easy to read. It deals with the subject matter of life and behaviour, self reliance, love and so on.
December 22, 2025
Sitting in the intersection of ancient Greek philosophy, German psychology and the Japanese way of living, this two-parter follows a discussion between a frustrated young man and a philosopher. Mirroring Socratic dialogues but taking mostly influence from Adler's teachings of psychology, this book's message conveys deep truth about how we function, think and feel.
October 24, 2022
its okay .. pretty good structure to what the writer tryna told to the reader but it could be more simpler n not lot that pages, few basic concept bout how to think within urself n surrounding socially is well explained ...
December 5, 2024
Could not finish as the narrators voice and cadence was unpleasant to listen to. The first book *disliked* was ok and had some interesting points to make, what I heard in this was just okay and not as interesting as TCTBD. DNF
May 8, 2025
I liked the previous book of Kishimi much more than this one. This is also very good in terms of the underlying ideas but the narration gets sometimes too long because of irrelevant objections of the young person in the story.
October 2, 2025
Very fascinating book on Adlerian psychology. I still find points of it very interesting a few months after reading it. I especially enjoyed the dialogue and writing. Can only recommend reading this book!
November 3, 2021
This book have been teaching me how to create positive think. Thanks
February 19, 2022
The courage to be happy was my follow up - chefskiss certainly but again strong medicine for ya brain.
December 26, 2022
A must-read by everyone. The dialect between a young man and a philosopher is actually the answer to the questions that many of us have.
January 20, 2023
One of my favs
February 13, 2023
The books came to me at the right time. Loved them. Life changing.
April 23, 2023
Good intro to Adlerian psychology.
October 2, 2023
These books give you a new perspective on how to look at life and our daily relationships with people. Great read.
February 21, 2024
I didn't love the way the book was all just a diaglogue of the conversation between 2 people. It made it hard to focus.
January 6, 2025
Absolutely treasures! Love these so much and the style is wonderful (it’s a conversation between a youth and the philosopher).
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews