2 Books I Recommend For Personal Healing

Understanding Human Nature

Author: Alfred Adler

I picked up this book at a thrift shop a couple of years ago. Although dry as any scholarly psychology publication, Understanding Human Nature lets us in on the basic human elements of our personalities, how we relate to each other in our social communities resulting in the formation of our society and why we often try to sabotage our very existence in the process of our own evolution. Each page brings forth insight into the human psyche, enlightening the reader with an innate common sense that we often forget to use in our daily lives.

Quotes from this book:

"Owing to our isolated life none of us knows very much about human nature. In former times it was impossible for human beings to live such isolated lives as they live today."

"It is an oft-repeated truism that human beings walk past, and talk past, each other, fail to make contacts, because they approach each other like strangers, not only in society, but in the narrow circle of family."

"Human beings would doubtless get along with each other better, and would approach each other more closely, were they able to understand one another better. Under such circumstances it would be impossible for them to disappoint and deceive each other. An enormous danger to society lies in this possibility of deception."

"Our very thoughts and emotions are conceivable only when we premise their universal utility."

"Each of us values only that which is appropriate to his (her) goal."


Siddhartha

Author: Hermann Hesse

I read Demian by Hesse in 2006 yet just recently read Siddhartha this past winter. It's about a young boy, Siddhartha, who leaves his home to embark on a spiritual journey in which he finds himself at the fork of many different paths. This story spans his lifetime from a young adolescent living by his means in the woods then seeking the Buddha yet exiting with questions, to giving into his desires as a rich businessman then choosing a modest life lived as a ferryman by a river. Within this book lies great truths in the choices we make as human beings and tests the false ideals of what our society considers to be ultimate fulfillment and success. One thing I love about Hermann Hesse is his ability to tap into the human consciousness through the subtle description of his characters and their verbal interactions without losing the reader in the process.