A Journey (Part 6)

6. Self-help books
It takes a certain degree of humility to read a self-help book. I was always able to tell myself that as a psychology student, my interest was academic. That was a lie.

Here are all that I can remember reading:

-The Knight in Rusty Armor by Robert Fischer

This one is very short, and I have read it many times. It has become a personal classic of mine. It is very funny and insightful. It is an easy book to hate because it is a bit simplistic about some things. But I highly recommend it.

-The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis

Not really a self-help book, but it gave me the same feeling as one. Sad, very uplifting and highly recommended. This is C.S. Lewis’s vision of heaven and hell, and the chasm that divides them, and the bridge that crosses that chasm. Highly recommended.

-Leadership and Self-Deception by The Arbinger Institute

This one is slightly boring and quite badly written. But if you’re someone who sometimes has difficulty absorbing abstract principles, maybe its for you. I don’t really like it, but lots of smart, respectable people that I have talked to got a lot out of it. It is about how to see people as people rather than as objects.

-If You Meet The Buddha on the Road, Kill Him: The Pilgrimage of Modern Psychotherapy Patients

I found this book in my mom's house. I think it was popular back in the seventies but I quite liked it. It is about freedom and moral autonomy. It is also about depression and happiness. Another major theme is the importance of telling one's "story". A person's story is a myth. i.e., It is not the accuracy of the events that is important but rather what they mean to the person and to the listener. In this way, the value of the story is to be found in its telling, and to try to hide it is unnatural and unhealthy (see #4).

-The Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman

I am not sure whether to recommend this one or not. It is written as a biography, but a good portion of it seems made up. The best thing to take away from it, I think, is the fact that the main character took years and years of discipline, study, and meditation to bring peace into his life.

Who knows how much these books helped me. At the very least they were interesting. When you’re absorbed in a book, it’s difficult to be depressed in that moment.