Reading & the Good Life
Join the conversation! Every Friday at Noon EST, Perennial Meditations readers are welcome to gather for Reading & the Good Life (Register here), a casual space for connection, contemplation, and conversations on the art of living.
Who is Alfred Adler?
According to the authors (Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga), The Courage to Be Disliked distills Alfred Adler’s (1870—1937) philosophical and psychological ideas into a narrative dialogue between a philosopher and a young man.
Here is how Kishimi and Koga describe Adlerian psychology:
YOUTH: A moment ago, you used the words ‘another philosophy,’ but I’ve heard that your specialty is in Greek philosophy.
PHILOSOPHER: Yes, Greek philosophy has been central to my life ever since I was a teenager. The great intellectual figures: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle. I am translating a work by Plato at the moment, and I expect to spend the rest of my life studying classical Greek thought.
YOUTH: Well, then what is this ‘other philosophy’?
PHILOSOPHER: It is a completely new school of psychology that was established by the Austrian psychiatrist Alfred Adler at the beginning of the twentieth century. It is generally referred to as Adlerian psychology. …
—
PHILOSOPHER: … As he himself said, ‘There might come a time when one will not remember my name; one might even have forgotten that our school ever existed.’ Then he went on to say that it didn’t matter. The implication being that if his school were forgotten, it would be because his ideas had outgrown the bounds of a single area of scholarship, and become commonplace, and a feeling shared by everyone. … In other words, rather than being a strict area of scholarship, Adlerian psychology is accepted as a realization, a culmination of truths and of human understanding. …
YOUTH: So your theories are developed not from Greek philosophy initially but from the viewpoint of Adlerian psychology?
PHILOSOPHER: Yes, that’s right.
YOUTH: Okay. There’s one more thing I’d like to ask about your basic stance. Are you a philosopher? Or are you a psychologist?
PHILOSOPHER: I am a philosopher, a person who lives philosophy. And, for me, Adlerian psychology is a form of thought that is in line with Greek philosophy, and that is philosophy.
Source: The Courage to Be Disliked
Dear Readers,
This Friday, we continue our study of The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga. If you’re available at Noon EST, please join us (Register here). We typically discuss three selected passages, but we’re exploring one extended passage due to the dialogue format.
As you read the passage (or dialogue) below, consider reflecting on the following questions:
(1) How can I embody these lessons in daily life?
(2) What might stand in the way of implementing these ideas?
(3) How can the following insights help me live the “good” life?
***Next month’s book (April) is Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke.
