12 Rules for Life
2015
- conduct of life
- philosophy
- philosophy / social
- psychology / applied psychology
- self-help / personal growth
- psychology
- psychiatry
- mythology
- self-help
- ethics
The story
Duplicate of https://openlibrary.org/books/OL27241047M/12_Rules_For_Life_Paperback
What it’s like
Dense, lecture-style prose with bold declarative rules that open each chapter, then long digressions through myth, clinical anecdote, literature and history, so it reads like a patient professor thinking aloud. The voice is earnest and combative, pushing back against easy answers, and the pages are heavy with references to the Bible, Jungian symbolism, Solzhenitsyn and the author's own therapy practice. Its emotional register is sober and often bleak, since much of it dwells on suffering, depression, cruelty and the ordinary ways people go wrong, though it keeps returning to responsibility and meaning. Nothing is lush or atmospheric; the pleasure is in following an argument rather than in sensory detail. Intensity is moderate: a few passages describe historical atrocities, abuse and violent deaths in plain, unsparing terms, but there is no fiction-style gore or sexual content. It suits a long, unhurried sit with a notebook, reading in short sessions over several weeks, or a slow commute, rather than a light evening read. It is for readers who want a serious, opinionated framework for self-discipline, personal responsibility and the meaning of suffering, and who don't mind a dense, sometimes preachy style.
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