On the Science of Constructing an Indestructible Self

It is a helpful book for those trying to practice to be more mindful and self aware.

You do need to be in the right frame of mind to take in this type of mindfulness.

I have found over the years the right book comes along when I am ready for it.

This book is amazingly helpful in providing practical tips in dealing with life's challenges. Whether it is trying different approaches, focusing on your inner strength, adjusting your expectations, or determining your mission in life, or many other pieces of advice, it all made lots of sense to me.

Congratulations to the author for the first self-help book I have read that really helps.

Amazing book! Must buy! Impactful insights grounded in research delivered with practical tips for implementation and through relatable anecdotes. Ive highlighted nearly all of the pages! Buy this book immediately.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It provides specific techniques for dealing with life's obstacles in a thoughtful and insightful way and contains well-thought out perspectives on cultivating inner strength, dealing with life's difficulties, how emotion and intellect battle to determine behavior and how to "establish a state of indestructible happiness." I wish I had had this book 20 years ago. I would recommend it to anyone without reservation.

I thought this book was terrific. Great insights, presented in context of patients which made it much more engaging than usual books. More importantly, i thought the concepts were critical, well articulated, and well organized. Taken together I thought this was one of my five all time favorite books. I would recommend it highly.

I rarely see the point in giving something a three-star review. It basically tells readers that the book, CD or movie is "average," so what's the point?
However, this book has a lot of plusses, as well as some "not-so-plusses," so I figured that a review might be of use to people to decide whether they would find the book to be of value or not.
On the "not so plus" side, the book is basically "Self-Help 101." In other words, if you are new to self-help books, then most of what is in this book will be new to you. However, if you are a "veteran" of such books, you will find very little new information or insights in this book. In fact, the author cites hundreds of journal studies. This isn't necessary a bad thing. The only problem is that, if you've read many self-help books before, you will recognize dozens of these studies. They are the exact same ones that hundreds of authors have cited before in hundreds of other books. (You probably have a lot of these studies memorized.)
On the plus side, there are a few new and interesting insights, most of which are contained in the first couple of chapters. After that, though, in the remaining chapters, it's pretty much "more of the same" that you've read in every other self-help book over the years.
Where the book really shines, though, is in the compassion that literally exudes from every page. It is obvious that this author is genuinely a caring and loving individual, with a great deal of compassion for his patients in specific, and people in general. As a result, by the time you are finished reading the book, you may not have learned anything intellectually, but you do end up with a really warm feeling - a true emotional high.
So, if you're new to self-help books, this book "clicks" on all counts.
If you are a veteran of self-help books, you may not learn much new information (no need to keep a pen and pad of paper handy), but you WILL feel really good by the end of the book.

It seems like advice that would only help very specific people that think like the author. The authors past experiences were very dull. IMO, each statement doesn't transition well to the next. Useless information. I only purchased the book because it was categorized under robert greene books.

This book has some good insights based on the author's particular brand of Buddhism. Having a mission, expect fallbacks, expect obstacles, ...this is all good stuff. I didn't rate the book higher becuase it reads too much like a self-help book. However, there are good ideas. I am typically highlighting releant sentences on almost every page.

We all grew up listening to fairy tales. For the most part, the story plot provided a dilemma, a solution and usually ended with "and they all lived happily ever after." I think we came to believe that after reaching certain points in life, after completing school, getting married, establishing a career, we would enjoy the fairy tale of living happily ever after.

For most of us, it did not take too long to realize that was not the way life is. While our innate drive is to seek to maximize happiness, for the most part we are not given very good directions. For a time we were led to believe that achieving certain materialistic goals would bring the happiness we longed for. But we soon learned that no matter what material goals we achieve, we soon habituate to them - the new wears off and their ability to satisfy us diminishes.

Clearly we need a better approach to life and its ups and downs if we are going to lead a happy, productive life. Dr. Alex Lickerman, the author of The Undefeated Mind has provided us an exceptionally well written book which gives us the tools necessary for a better approach.

The first lesson we need to understand and accept is that we need to "... stop hoping for easy lives and instead to focus on cultivating the inner strength we need to enjoy the difficult lives we all have."

We have grown up thinking that things will bring us happiness. But the more things we acquire and the more attached we become to these things, the more vulnerable we become. Our attachment to things increases the possibility we will experience suffering.

According to Dr. Lickerman, what we need is the wisdom to deal with life the way life is. "Wisdom is so powerful, in fact, that it can even put a halt to suffering without changing the circumstances that cause it." If we learn to "turn poison into medicine" we can find a way to benefit from the suffering.

In the book Dr. Lickerman deals with ten different topics which will help us develop an undefeated mind. "An undefeated mind is not one which never feels discouraged or despairing; it's one that continues on in spite of it. An undefeated mind does not fill itself with false hope, but with hopes to find real solutions, even solutions it many not want or like. An undefeated mind is itself what grants us access to the creativity, strength, and courage necessary to find those real solutions."

The topics covered give us a blueprint for dealing with life's problems. The book is extremely well written and therefore easy to read and understand. There are plenty of examples from Dr. Lickerman's own life as well as his interaction with patients. There are also so lots of summaries or conclusions from psychological studies. All the theories and studies are extensively referenced. If you choose to follow the references, you will greatly expand your knowledge of human behavior.

One of the more insightful discussions concerned dealing with the past. Most people spend a lot of time focusing on past events - reliving them, hoping somehow to change the past. We all know that changing the past is not possible -that we cannot change the facts of what happened. Yet we still live a lot of our lives going over past events. A better way to deal with this is to change the meaning of the event. If we change the meaning we give to the event, we in effect change the past. Dr. Lickerman tells us how he changed his past by changing the meaning of the event. He further tells us how we can do the same.

Dr. Lickerman makes frequent reference to Nichiren Buddhism throughout the book. However he is not in anyway advocating that one needs to understand or adopt the teachings of Nichiren Buddhism. The references are to provide the reader a better perspective for viewing problems and solutions. I found the references insightful.

This book is not one you will be able to read once and gain all the insights available. In my opinion, the best approach is to read through the book and then go back and read it more slowly, digesting and allowing the teachings to sink in. You will gain some real insights from this book.

There are valuable insights on being fully committed to your goals. Taking full responsibility for the accomplishment of your goals - that is not depending on others for too much help, thus diffusing your own effort. There are excellent discussions on letting go, accepting pain, developing gratitude and overcoming fear.

An excellent book but will require time and work to gain all the good it contains.

I was provided a review copy of this book.

Many years ago, the renowned humorist and columnist Erma Bombeck wrote a book called, "If Life is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits?" And while humor can be a great salve for life's challenges, when we are in the midst of adversities such as a physical illness or addiction, or the pain of losing a dear one, or facing financial devastation, it can feel like the "pits"-- far from being a laughing matter.

But when we experience powerlessness and defeat, things are only as bleak as they seem, says author Alex Lickerman, M.D. While the circumstances may be out of our control, the wisdom extracted from adverse experience can impart "an inner life state" of undefeated strength. More than just a good theory, he illuminates nine core principles that assuage suffering, interweaving them into actual dialogues with his patients, and reinforcing their efficacy through examples of scientific studies and tenets of Nichiren Buddhism. An undefeated mind is when the goal for achieving something is to is to keep trying--rather than achieving the goal itself: "Never giving up isn't just necessary for victory, it is victory."

The author turns some cherished notions on their head - such as embracing the pain rather than resisting it, or that resilience is the capacity to endure the pain that adversity causes, or that distraction is superior to willpower for delaying gratification. Seamlessly blending dialogue, narrative, science, and faith, he convincingly demonstrates how one can achieve an inner life state of undefeated inner strength in any circumstance.

The author presents interesting argument as to what makes an undefeated mind there is no such thing there's only one thing the ability to persist even in the face of failure for everyone faces failure and defeats and personal trials and struggles of sort. It is a matter of perspective and attitude that helps you to redeem yourself your mind.

A lot of buddhism and eastern ideas are neither complete the same way western ideas are not. At some point I thought of objectivity as the cure all to realize ultimately subjectivity always runs the show one way or another.

The pain of love does hurt which is what spurred the author on his quest and the way he reasoned it out that he did not need the person to be happy anyway. This is a debatable theme since without each other ultimately nothing we do is of much value anyone who is conscious must realize that when you experience something with another it adds a level of depth to it. Perhaps what is relevant is what we are able to gain from our experiences even the most painful and defeating ones and this is the attitude we can cultivate but it is not a quick fix pain is real and we feel it so keenly and raw. This is a practical skill that overcome one can master but that does not somehow keep you from experiencing pains, challenges and obstacles.

It's still an interesting read to be honest I did not finish the book since I got the overall idea. Everything is a process and involves time and practice and to be able to rise above challenges and turn them into positivity requires time of reflection and honesty with oneself a level of understanding as well as discernment.

I have recommended this book to several people, and even put it on my son's Kindle so that it is there if I can ever persuade him to read it. Funny how sometime people not as close to you are more open to your opinions. Anywho, this book has been extremely useful to me. I don't chant, I am not Buddhist, and I really wish they had chosen a different cover, because I think many people, see the cover, don't look inside. But it is well worth reading. The basic premise - that life will have painful parts, is not really part of our Western philosophy. Our cultures veiw point is more that happiness exists as a result of the absence of pain. The more Eastern based ideas in this book are about developing strengths that allow for happiness even in the presense of pain, or at least developing the resilience to believe that happiness will be possible again even if the pain or the scars don't go away. It is a much more realistic view point, to my mind, and much more in line with my experience. I have dealt with depression most of my adult life, and to some extent the idea that if I could just achieve the right "happy, no problems here" mindset all my problems would go away, has not been at all helpful. Instead I am working to develop the sort of resilience proposed in this book.

So that's my opinion. Read it and develop your own. But don't cheat. Actually read the WHOLE thing first.

I was expecting a book on meditation, mindfulness and so on. Instead I found a well researched , thoughtful treatise on how to leverage science and intellectual rigour combined with self awareness to build a more rewarding life. A very well written and researched book. I downloaded the kindle version and have now ordered hard copies for my family. Well done.

This was a self help book with a refreshingly unique tone. Much of what is written in this genre is packed with a lot of positive messages, most of which are helpful, but not entirely objective. What I found unique about this book, was that the author took a critical eye approach to finding "The Undefeated Mind."

For example, early on he challenges the common inspirational quote, "That which does not kill us, only makes us stronger." Rather than accepting that at face value, he asks how that is actually true. This approach continues when he shares of his own internal debate between the 'scientist that argues with the Buddhist' in him. I enjoyed the tone and critical thinking from the author.

The book is interesting, and well written without a lot of fluff. If you're interested in this topic, this is a solid addition to your library.

This is both a very interesting read from the perspective of human behavior and a very useful one from the perspective of self-improvement and self-help. It is, in my opinion, a remarkable attempt to draw practical and applicable life lessons from a large volume of religious and scholarly work. I really enjoyed the writing style as well.

The premise behind this book is to provide strategies that aid one in achieving his or her goals and backing these strategies, which involve methods derived from Buddhism and Psychology, with scientific evidence. The intended audience is really anyone that is in need of guidance on how to deal with challenges that arise in life and how to overcome them while fostering resiliency.

As a reader, I came into this book needing advice because I had recently faced some conflicts related to school that left me somewhat depressed.
Initially, all was well when reading the stated methods one can use in the face of internal and external adversity. However, as I kept reading I often thought the scientific evidence the author/physician used was weak at best. Some of the evidence he used was conducted in different countries and in different continents and the author would not provide any reason as to why he would use this evidence. Was this use valid because our social context was similar, how about political context, or how about even the given context of the study? Who did the population consist of? I just felt like one cannot simply come to a conclusion and make an extreme generalization to include the entire world without considering multiple factors. Ironically, that would be naïve and unscientific the opposite of what his title suggests.

Moreover, if the whole reason is to support these claims with science then I would have wished he used critical thought more often. For example, he had stated that food can be as addicting as cocaine and then would proceed to tell his patient who is struggling with obesity to pick up another habit such as shopping. I felt that this was more of substitute your current addiction with another addiction kind- of -approach, which never leads him to inquire on the reasons that brought on this addiction in the first place. For most of the examples he used, which were mostly involving his patients, the analysis just stopped there at face value and just at one's actions. Furthermore, he solely focused his questions on what he found of interest regarding his patient's issues and did not look at the context of the patient to better understand his or her actions. I thought if he did critically analyze the context of the patient, like a psychoanalyst, therapist, psychologist, sociologist, or any scholar would( which he is not but definitely played these roles in these situations) he could have provided a more effective solution and at the same time reach a different level of thought, critical thought.

Consequently, I focused more on what strategies I could use and not the examples he provided nor the evidence that was poorly presented.

This would have been a great book if he would have omitted the "evidence" portion, or at least spend more time and energy on effectively addressing one of his objectives. Incidentally, some of the studies he used were even conducted approximately sometimes ten to forty years ago and were often irrelevant not solely because of time, but also because there was no warrant established to use this evidence and that was actually what made this book more annoying than useful to read. Poor evidence, poorly analyzed, and poorly presented. In the end it defeated the objective on "the Science of Constructing an Indestructible Self." In the end, the biggest issue for me was that the author tried to incorporate everything, his personal stories, Buddhism, an extremely broad array of scientific evidence, and patients' stories, in order to make this book impeccable; however, it actually backfired and made it mediocre at best.

Again, the evidence and concepts were just poorly touched on and he did not offer much critical analysis on the evidence he provided. Some people do have the gift to incorporate all these subjects and establish valid and clear connections and offer critical analysis to then provide the reader effective strategies on overcoming life's challenges. Unfortunately, this was not the case for this book.

This book was well written and inspirational. The inspirational stories and ideas were helpful as I entered a very stressful time of transition in my life. The book does not provide theoretical ideas of positivity overcoming everything, but rather that part of life is suffering. Despite this, the book lays out tools we can develop to overcome adversity and live the life we all are capable of. It was realistic, helpful, and simple in its message. Great Book!

Alex Lickerman, a compassionate, thoughtful physician, shares his insights on leading a productive fulfilling life. Dr. Lickerman shows how to make the best use of our unique mental, physical, emotional and spiritual skills. He provides detailed discussions of how to use our skills to overcome the obstacles in our path, whether these obstacles are external or internal. There is no preaching but rather sound advice and concrete steps which may be utilized.

I recommend this book to anyone who feels unsure how to start a their journey of change or who feels overwhelmed by their current circumstances.

Generally speaking, if you NEVER had any experience with self help books AND know NOTHING about Buddhism, this book might help. Personally I have been to most Buddhist countries myself and know a lot about the Philosophy and my later father was a medical doctor as well.

Reading this book, I came to realize that on some occasions, you simply CANNOT have different things related like they are on this book (Medicine and Phylosophy). Some people can change their points of view and they can improve by themselves and this is a known fact, but others just can't and not because they do not wish to but because they need treatment and Buddhism is no treatment at all!

Personally I am against these books that have the tendency to generalize people and their symptoms because I consider them extremely little scientific. We can obviously say that everything is relative in life, that victory is what we want it to be and FOREMOST that we suffer on most occasions because of things that are nor worth it at all, but when buying a book, I expect some more insight into medical matters instead of a debate of one of the many Buddhist currents around, as a replacement for Mind Problems, that are very real.

In addition, this book, being written by a physician, becomes a little evasive when we consider that a therapist, to judge the situation of a given person, MUST for sure KNOW that person and the author of Undefeated Mind does not know us all.

Nothing comes handy when we struggle against life, because that is the one thing that must be accepted the way it is: we can always try to improve ourselves and strive for victory, nothing wrong with that, but after a certain point, nobody wins all the time and life will never be fair all the time. By the moment you accept you have got to learn how to lose and accept circumstances as they introduce themselves (even if years later you will realize some bad things always come to our benefit!), life will easier and much more bearable. Besides, I felt horrified when I read some statistics in the book, because SELF HELP is by definition PERSONAL and never generalized. I cannot accept some people saying that most people who consider themselves happy are over their 80's, because ANYONE at ANY AGE can get to happiness when knowing how to deal with life and to finish up, a most important thing I have learned in my own life: NOT BEING HAPPY DOES NOT NECESSARILY MEAN BEING UNHAPPY and sometimes stay in between is exactly the best point for us and I am sure was almost the message Lord Buddha wished to deliver...BEING COOL ABOUT LIFE PERHAPS DOES NOT MEAN HAPPINESS...BUT THAT MEANS SOMETHING EVEN MORE IMPORTANT: PERSONAL BALANCE

All I can say is that I am very disappointed in this book, even if it is definetely well written.

The title alone suggests that the author just doesn't get it, and is merely interpreting and writing about others experience. Though I don't see it as completely unhelpful, it is wrong of Mr. Lickerman to profit from the practice - especially since the title is so obviously more of a margeting gimmick than an honest reflection on what builds hardiness and relief. The key is not building or attempting to build an indestructable self as the "self" is the cause of most peoples misery. The concept of indefensibility IS the enemy. Buddhist and brain scientists both agree that the concept of the self itself is illusion or mental construction and often devolves into a fantasy life in a world which exists only in the mind; the self is aggregated data from various sense organs, having no singular location within the nervous system. The Buddha discovered this 2500 years ago and modern brain scientists confirm it. Unfortunately, you cannot gain much benefit from reading a book but only through skill practice. A simple practice for sure. Follow the link to all the free resources you need

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Good luck!

Wow. I nearly never write reviews, certainly not bad ones, but this book was awful. I was looking for something spiritual and uplifting, instead the wretched stories of suffering throughout just made me anxious. Are you freaking kidding me??? I have no idea what the title has to do with the contents, but it's false advertising. This just seems to be a fearful doctor sharing his misery and fears with the public, and charging us to do it. The contents were so unsettling it actually makes me mad! Great that I have these awful stories burned into my brain for the rest of my life, well yeah, that sure helps...Thanks so much LIckerman. Keep the hell you have to live through as a doctor to yourself!

Buddhism is atheistic. I.E. does not believe in an Almighty God who created and ruled this planet. I don't know very much about karma but think it must be bad karma to read a book by an author who believes in something that denies an external creative God. How much wisdom can this author really have? In view of that i returned the book....

The problem with all books like this is they have too many words that don’t add. This book probably would have been an amazing 50 page read. But it’s so long and so boring in a non academic way that I gave up.