Ichiro Kishimi – Author Biography
Early Life
Ichiro Kishimi is a Japanese philosopher and psychologist who has devoted his career to the study of Alfred Adler, the founder of individual psychology. Based in Kyoto, Japan, Kishimi became one of his country’s leading Adlerian scholars, teaching and counseling while writing about Adler’s ideas for a general audience.
Career
Kishimi’s global fame came from an unusual collaboration: The Courage to Be Disliked (2013 in Japanese; 2018 in English), co-written with writer Fumitake Koga. Structured as a series of dialogues between a philosopher and a skeptical young man, the book presented Adlerian psychology — the controversial idea that we are not determined by our past traumas but choose our lifestyles in the present — to a mass audience. It became a phenomenon in Asia, selling millions of copies in Japan and Korea, and then a surprise international bestseller. A sequel, The Courage to Be Happy, followed. Kishimi continues to teach, counsel, and write on Adlerian psychology in Japan.
Major Works
The Courage to Be Disliked (2013/2018, with Fumitake Koga) is his landmark — a Socratic dialogue introducing Adler’s concepts of teleology, the separation of tasks, and community feeling. The Courage to Be Happy continued the conversation.
Writing Style and Themes
The book’s dialogue form makes difficult ideas conversational: the young man’s objections voice the reader’s own resistance. Kishimi’s great themes, drawn from Adler, are that the past does not determine us, that all problems are interpersonal relationship problems, and that happiness comes from contributing to others. The style is philosophical but plain — ancient dialogue techniques applied to modern anxiety.
Legacy
Kishimi almost single-handedly revived global interest in Alfred Adler, psychology’s “forgotten giant.” The Courage to Be Disliked became one of the bestselling psychology books of the decade and introduced millions of readers to the liberating — and challenging — idea that we are free to change at any moment.
