The Courage to Be Disliked
I've been sitting on a review for this for a while. There were portions of this that were hard to wrap my head around, but the format of the book as a conversation between a young man and an older philosopher helped. I was unfamiliar with Alfred Adler's work, and I wasn't certain on the first read-through, without a whole lot of knowledge or context, if I agreed with everything. However, I am still thinking about this book a month and a half later. The ideas about making excuses and comparison, imagining "I could do that if only these obstacles weren't in my way" or "I could do that even better than they could if only..." resonated deeply. My lifelong wrestling with people-pleasing and not wanting to be disliked was definitely confronted in my reading as well. Overall, I think this was a worthwhile read for me. It was accessible and interesting, but I think I'd have benefited more with extra background knowledge before diving in.
