BOOK REVIEW: F*ck Feelings by Michael Bennett and Sarah Bennett

F*ck Feelings by Michael Bennett, Sarah Bennett
Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help

Self-help genre is not for everyone. Especially not for me. Either it is too positive for a dream to come true in man’s life that is unachievable (and for my taste) or it is too boring. But they are a business, in a big business. Dr. Michael Bennet (a psychiatrist) and his daughter/writer Sarah Bennet suggests we are too emotional over self-help books. Actually, not only self-help books, but about everything.

The title of the book, F*ck Feelings: One Shrink’s Practical Advice for Managing All Life’s Impossible Problems, is perfect, and certainly matches the context inside as the book provides some practical solutions to common problems we all face at various times in our lives. The target audience of this book are people who loath self-help books, but I would recommend this to those who love self-help books too. It’s a new insight to very common discussion regarding self-improvement, self-esteem, life’s fairness and unfairness, over helpfulness, serenity or the peace of mind, love, communication, parenthood, assholes, and treatment. It’s about understanding oneself.

This book is about how we over think about every situation as how we let our emotions control our sanity and disrupt our daily/hourly musings. We want to accomplish things that are not pragmatically possible for any living creature, emotionally. I am not saying we should not try for things which many think are cuffed by the word impossible, it’s all about self-control. But try to understand the stuff this books covers and I am talking about are different from the stuff people you are surrounded with may implicitly suggest impossible.

The book talks about feelings. The emotions that cause those feelings and how unnecessary they are at times of our actions. Bennetts’ suggest one should take them less seriously. One should practice self-awareness with observing various things at vastly timings. One cannot ignore one’s feelings, despite the try but one can let them not to disrupt their decisions and worry too much about them. The presentation of the book is logical however there few areas I do not wholesomely agree with the Bennetts. Their logical approach to those scenarios are not the only ones, one can have their own way of dealing with them. Everybody does. The repetition of context if there and might be bother you, as it did to me, but I suggest to move on. There is no linear way to read this book, but I suggest you to read the entire book.

This book is something that would be on the shelves for a long time but certainly not the first one of its genre. I suggest you take a look at The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking by Oliver Burkeman which is less tedious than this one. I think F*ck Feelings wants us to always remember that life sucks sometimes, but that’s okay.

3 out of 5!