37 pages • 1 hour read
Mark MansonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
This chapter includes four subchapters: “Rejection Makes Your Life Better,” “Boundaries,” “How to Build Trust,” and “Freedom Through Commitment.” Manson opens by noting that as a young man in his twenties, he decided to travel the world. He spent nearly five years jumping from one country to the next. His social life mimicked the footloose lifestyle he was living. He had many sexual liaisons that never turned into fully committed relationships, something he attributed to a fear of commitment that carried over from his childhood. All told, Manson visited 55 countries, and while the experience had a lasting impact on his life, he realized that it left him feeling unfulfilled. After Manson returned to the US, he soon began to realize the apparently contradictory lesson that freedom was inherently tied to commitment. Manson began to believe that a true sense of liberation requires narrowing one’s focus so that there are fewer alternatives.
Manson then examines the tendency of what he calls the “positivity/consumer culture” (170) to avoid rejection in all forms. Manson believes that the avoiding rejection at all costs, both in giving and in receiving it, leads to negative outcomes simply because rejection is a fact of life. Avoiding it, just like his own avoidance of commitment, doesn’t address the fear of it.
Business & Economics
View Collection
Challenging Authority
View Collection
Fate
View Collection
Fear
View Collection
Laugh-out-Loud Books
View Collection
Mental Illness
View Collection
Mortality & Death
View Collection
Nation & Nationalism
View Collection
New York Times Best Sellers
View Collection
Philosophy, Logic, & Ethics
View Collection
Popular Book Club Picks
View Collection
Power
View Collection
Psychology
View Collection
Self-Help Books
View Collection
Truth & Lies
View Collection