Religion and psychoanalysis are related. Kierkegaard can be considered a psychologist, even though he was a theologian and a philosopher. The foundation of Kierkegaard’s philosophy is the Fall in the story of Adam and Eve. This myth contains the basic insight of psychology, that man is a union of opposites – self-consciousness and the physical … Read more
If heroism requires courage, why are so few people truly courageous? Even Carlyle, who terrified people, depended on his father for validation. Becker argues that one reason that people lack courage is because they lack authority, and they lack authority because they did not choose to be born – they have been granted everything: a … Read more
Philosophers have tried to figure out the core nature of man, but perhaps this eluded them because man does not have only one core nature. As Erich Fromm put it, the essence of man is really his paradoxical nature. One the one hand, he is a symbolic self, he can create ingenious things and speculate … Read more
One of the main things that move man is the fear of death and heroism is a direct response to this modern rediscovery. Our primate ancestors ignored the cowardly and deferred to those who were extra-powerful. Man has elevated animal courage into a cult. The ceremonies of Christ’s rise form the death is a symbolic … Read more
We live in a time when easy answers are given to complex questions about man’s purpose in life. Embedded in every society is a hero system. This system can be religious or secular, it can be political or economic, but its function is the same – to give the individual the feeling that they are … Read more
The claim John Perkins makes in the Confessions of an Economic Hitman is not that there is one global conspiracy or that there is a small group of men in a dark room scheming about how to take over the world, but that there are many small conspiracies taking place at the same time, by … Read more
Jane is author of the book: Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World If you have trouble sleeping, you should try 10 minutes of Tetris. Research shows that games like Tetris, Candy Crush, or Bejeweled can help overwrite negative visualization – this has applications for overeating, preventing … Read more
Henry Ford wanted to build a V6 engine. His engineers told him it was impossible, but he was relentless. He told them to get to work anyway, and so they did. A year later, there was no progress, the engineers again told Ford that they could not find a way to do what he was asking … Read more
Fear and Trembling was written by Kierkegaard, a Danish philosopher who was a controversial figure, his work was unpopular during his lifetimes, and in no small part, this was due to his criticism of the Danish church for pushing a diluted form of Christianity and his rejection of widely accepted ideas. Appreciation for his writing … Read more
The 50th Law by Robert Greene and Curtis Jackson (50 Cent) is about overcoming fear. The ten chapters of the book each focus on a common fear between people – this may be a fear of change, or death, or of leading from the front, or of being patient. The virtues that lead to success … Read more