I read The Courage to Be Disliked. It’s a book about Adlerian psychology: the psychological insights and theory of Alfred Adler, a contemporary of Freud’s and Jung’s.
But it’s more accurate to say that it’s a book about life and the difficulties we all encounter, viewed in the light of Adler’s theory. It takes the form of a dialogue between a young man (the Student) and an older, wiser, scholar (the Philosopher). The Student voices doubts about some of the counter-intuitive statements of the Philosopher. I found the dialogue format helpful.
If you’re wondering about the title, here’s the story:
If you live your own life, you’re not going to be living according to other people’s expectations and demands. If you choose to live your own life – that is, if you decide to live freely – then you’re going to live in a way that runs counter to some people’s expectations. And when you disappoint people’s expectations or don’t give them what they demand, they won’t like it (“Hey, you’re not supposed to do that. You’re supposed to….”). They’re going to dislike you.
In short, if you’re going to live freely, you need to have the courage to be disliked.