Why Smart People Hurt: A Guide for the Bright, the Sensitive, and the Creative by Eric Maisel

Why Smart People Hurt: A Guide for the Bright, the Sensitive, and the Creative Reviews

• 
  Maria Espadinha

  Inteligência - Aliada ou Inimiga?
  
  As vicissitudes da busca incessante de Sentido e algumas sugestões úteis sobre como as ultrapassar!
  É algo absurdo ter a inteligência como inimiga ao invés duma aliada e este livro propõe-se desfazê-lo!
  👍🌟🌟🌟🌟👍
• 
  Helen Noble

  I read this book in one sitting. It was like listening to mentor, an old teacher or wise relative who sees the world in the same way. It explained many of my thoughts, feelings and struggles with the world. Yes it talks about mindfulness, along with so many other books these days. However its wording is concise, its structure uncluttered and the message crystal clear. It provokes consideration of issues and explains options.
  Essentially the author explains how the meaning we search for in life is really just a psychological subjectivity and that when we let it, or the pursuit of it, dominate our lives, we makes ourselves and other miserable. To some extent I am already able to suspend my quest for meaningful living in the face of the realities and necessities of life and was able to answer some of the questions he poses in the book. I already have ways of managing existential stress and channeling my need for meaning-making.
  However it was reassuring to learn that others think the same way and encounter like dilemmas.
  Next on my list to read is Dr Maisel's book on managing performance anxiety. Feeling excitement on approaching the next read is one of the best feelings.
  Thank you Dr Maisel. I am so glad to have discovered your writing!
• 
  Jake

  The central premise here is that if one enjoys intellectual stimulation, then they may find themselves bored with the various paths presented to them by life. Or , I guess more accurately, by the institutions that funnel them from social system to social system . In other words, many of the viable career options in the market - end up being a form of horrid drudgery for those who like to sore across planets in their mind. I think that this may be a widespread issue and for many that find themselves in such a position, they must know life can be more pleasant elsewhere.
  But does the author provide a functional and useful resolution for this?
  
  I’d say not really.
  
  He briefly goes over other issues one may have such as isolation, but only to a superficial degree.
  
  Perhaps this may help someone out there find it to be a cathartic break. For others, it may bring them to a position where they will see themselves as part of the improperly treated elite.
  
  Either way, it was interesting.
  
  
  This does touch upon an issue I’ve put a lot of thought into though. That being, how much talent is wasted in the wrong jobs across industrialized society. There are I expect, way too many people in jobs that don’t quite fit their personal skills and aptitude’s, but rather serve for those people as a stale form of torture. Beyond simply being bad for those people, it makes our society as a whole less efficient and useful than it could be if Human resource were properly used. All in all, I expect this book hints at a serious sociological issue that is oft ignore. Nevertheless, be wary you won’t find topics in sociology in this text. It is primarily on being mismatched with one’s personal life.
  
  Recommended for :
  Clinicians in health care
  Those smart and under appreciated willing to read an eh book
• 
  Ian D

  Τον όρο First World Problems τον ξέρετε; Ε, αυτό σε βιβλίο ψυχολογίας. Ενδιαφέρον παρά τον τίτλο και μη με ρωτάτε γιατί το έπιασα, έχει πρόβλημα ένας φίλος μου έξυπνος...
• 
  Tony

  This is a difficult book to rate or review, not least because I generally have a hate-hate relationship with "self-help" books, and this one pushes too many of my wrong buttons (if it is indeed a book, and not purely a giant informercial for the author's "Natural Psychology").
  
  But ...
  
  It also provided a enough "aha" moments, and insight into some things that have been bugging me for a while, for me to give it a high rating, regardless of its many, many flaws.
  
  The constant refrain of the book is that smart people are really, really good at thinking themselves into all sorts of traps, and really, really bad at being smart about the challenges of being smart. Maisel sets out fifteen key areas in which this often applies, and suggests a variety of techniques for addressing them.
  
  I'm not entirely convinced by many of the proposed solutions (and got increasingly more irritated by the constant framing of them in terms of what "an adherent of natural psychology" would do), but simply providing a framework to notice and name a lot of bad thinking traps — many of which I'm well aware of falling into regularly, but have never really been able to identify with this level of clarity — is (hopefully) of sufficiently high value on its own.
  
  
• 
  Megan

  I honestly didn't finish this so it's very possible my review won't give credit to the second half of the book. I picked up the book because the title was compelling. I was frustrated by the assumptions and implications the book makes about what it means to be smart and what all "the bright, the sensitive, and the creative" people look like. The broad overgeneralizations bothered me. Still I decided to give it a chance.
  Eric Maisel has some interesting points and parts of the natural psychology that he writes about were intriguing. The last section I got to before my time at the gym where I was reading the book ended was the section where he implies and essentially states that smart people can't believe in a higher power. He asserts that belief in a high power means that there is a requirement to ultimately know everything- leaving the world without mystery. "Your choice isn't between mysticism and nothingness. Rather it is a choice between mysticism and genuine mystery". Now I am reading this in the context of someone who does believe in a higher power. I study the Bible and will freely acknowledge that there are many things about God and the world that are a mystery. Genuine mystery doesn't disappear because of a belief in a higher power; I would assert it's enhanced.
  As I said I was reading this at the gym and my cardio time ended. I've tried picking up the book since and just can't do it. There were a few tidbits I found insightful, but overall I see no reason to continue the book to its conclusion.
• 
  Benoit Lelièvre

  This is not good.
  
  I don't give one star ratings very often on this site, but the wrongness of the premise and the loose treatment/interpretation of science was not only frustrating... but it was also not that smartly put?
  
  First of all: smart people are not a creed. People are smart to different degrees and about different things. There are people with giftedness (a real condition) and people who are stupid on both extremes of the spectrum, but the great majority of human being have developped knowledge and quickness of tought about at least one subject or another. So, outside of Maisel's abitrary (and non-sourced) claim that "smart people are 15% of the population", this is a book about how it stressful it feels to be a responsible adult human that was deceitfully packaged.
  
  Also, there's very little pertinent observations or advice in there. It reminded me of the papers I wrote in high school where I tried to stretch two lines of knowledge into a three pages essay. I don't doubt that Eric Maisel is a super brilliant dude, but there is better, less lazy and more honest self-help out there.
  
  
• 
  Cassie ♡

  There were some ideas that were relatable and promising, but it all just seemed to boil down to an ad for "natural psychology " Meh.
• 
  Meckell

  Life-changing. I'd recommend this book to anyone that may at times feel burdened by the way their brain works (applying logic to EVERYTHING, overanalysis of the world around you, intellectual burnout, overwhelm by racing thoughts, etc ). This is more of a workbook and includes several questions to ask yourself in order to gain insight to your own personal experiences. Please know that the author takes a natural psychology approach to this message so it may not be for everyone. I highly recommend it though!
• 
  Lynne Spreen

  You don't have to be smart to benefit from (and LOVE) this book! Each chapter explains in simple, often humorous words why people feel unhappy or uncomfortable with their lives or each other. Eric Maisel SEES us. He understands why humans are the way we are, and he has a gentle and compassionate way of explaining us to ourselves, and giving us easy tips for making life easier and happier. I've bought copies for my young adult friends. This is like a guidebook for navigating adulthood! What a joy.
• 
  Madly Jane

  There is not a lot of love for Eric Maisel's natural psychology, but if a person has the sense to look at it as metaphor, it's interesting. Maisel has always been my "go to" writer/person when I am in a creative crisis. He is highly recommended by my therapist, who by the way, does not even believe in the literal tenets of natural psychology, but who respects Maisel's attempts to show anxious creatives how to get out of pain. Smart people suffer, because they think all the time and they know, and they can't stick their heads in the sand and hide from reality. It is an assault on the creative's emotions to engage in a world that is often very chaotic and unsympathetic to bright, questioning people. Maisel always has the creative person in his sights. His goal is to help. He knows a lot of us are in pain.
  
  I can't recommend this book for many. I think you have to get Maisel, know that Prozac is not likely to get you through your next artistic project, but might help you get out of bed or learn how to endure chit-chat.
  
  It's also not a "western thought" book, so it's not a typical self-help, which makes me laugh when I think about it, because Maisel is really not writing self-help books though he tried or his publisher did, to organize this one as that. Being smart, gifted, or creative is not going to always make you happy or fill your bank account, or even lead to success. Being creative is about process and drive and most of all, making meaning in a world that has none. It's meaning that we need but at the same time, we know there is no meaning. I know this seems like a contradiction and it is, really, that is the ambivalence that creatives live with and endure.
  
  I think, perhaps, it's best to understand that Maisel's natural psychology is really a reaction against the current model of biological madness. "This too shall pass." People who don't like Maisel or his books think him and even people who write good reviews of it as conceited. Not true. There are a lot of existential themes in Maisel's thinking. For example, he writes of deep sadness being diagnosed with depression, because everyone knows, in this time of a million self-help, feel positive books, we are not supposed to feel bad. And if we write something like this, we are ignoring mental health and the dangers of depression. Not so either.
  
  There are things about this book that I am critical of, probably the nature of the self-help book to begin with. There are so many and people seem to crave them. The usual anecdotal examples of self-help books is present. And Maisel doesn't really write those kinds of books. That is clearly where he fails. But he cares. He knows what it means to have a creative mind that runs away with itself, that cannot be put into a LABEL. It is labels that have ruined us all. We are not labels. So no one likes this book. Probably because they want a label. Oh, well. Moving on.
  
  ONE LAST THING. I love Maisel. He values creativity so much. That alone is worth the price of the book and the read.
• 
  Shane Baker

  I listened to the audio version of this book. The content was very interesting! I could relate to some of it, but, was lost with the over promotion of "Natural Psychology". I lost interest 1/3 into the book, but forced myself to finish it. There was a significant amount of repetition and the narrator was monotone. Overall, I wouldn't recommended this book to the average reader, perhaps a student of psychology.
• 
  Josefin

  Honestly, this one started off interesting and quickly fell into a gigantic propagating mess that I really really hated.
• 
  Mark Murdock

  One of the least beneficial self-help books I've read. The only merit is that the book champions the view that the meaning of life is to make meaning in (your) life (discrete from finding/discovering meaning in life).
  
  The meaning behind the title is still as unclear to me after finishing as it was when I was started. Everyone hurts and has problems, not just smart people. If there's an inequality there, data was not provided. The argument felt like a bad sales pitch, I suspended my disbelief to hear the rest of the argument, then I reinstated my disbelief. What is this book a guide to, exactly? I can guess but I know others who read the book may have different answers because the thesis of the author's argument is unclear.
  
  The author did not set definitions/boundaries for what "smart" means, and the narrative seems to mostly operate with the weak claim that "smart" = "manic/mentally racing". An annoyingly large amount of the first half of the book is dedicated to self-victimizing (assuming the author includes himself in the category of "smart people"). Super emo vibes about how society is oppressing thinking so "smart" people are marginalized. Ultra BS. An annoyingly large amount of the book is spent trying to convince the reader that there is no God and religion is incompatible with being "smart" (no data provided, haha). Also, Google says some of the author's books say "Eric Maisel", some say "Eric Maisel PhD", and some say "Eric Maisel Ph.D.", and the lack of uniformity irks me.
  
  The message is ill defined and there's zero cited evidence to back up the author's claims or suggestions. The entire thing reads like a salty, pouty blog, and/or a sales pitch for "natural psychology", and it's no surprise the author's personal website has a ton of coaching courses for sale.
  
  I feel like I need to read two good books to get the distaste of this book off my mind palate. Reading this was like spending a Saturday with your least favorite coworker, if your least favorite coworker was Eric Maisel and he spent the whole day reading his book "Why Smart People Hurt" to you.
• 
  Amy Finley

  Overall, I didn’t love it. However I appreciated a few nuggets that I think were pretty powerful for me.
• 
  Sarah Hyatt

  What a promising and infuriatingly disappointing book.
  
  Maisel takes a concept worth exploring - the gifted person's intensity of feeling and near-constant existential crisis - and proceeds to gloss over it in a variety of ways while crafting his commercial for "natural psychology" (a term he never fully explains) and his fundamentalist, Jim Bob Duggar-esque brand of atheism. The writing is poor and undeveloped, and the author's views are rarely supported with anything other than his naive assumption that everyone already agrees with him and/or knows what he is talking about without an explanation.
  
  The entire book reads like the report of a high school student who heard one lecture on a topic while passing notes with their friends in the back of a classroom. There is just enough information that resonates to create the appearance of actual content, yet when read more closely the book really doesn't say anything new at all, and what it does say skims lightly over the surface without ever really demonstrating significant engagement with the topic. In doing so, Maisel manages to be yet another voice undermining true intelligence - the very thing he halfheartedly rails against in this promotional brochure for "natural psychology."
  
  The book also makes numerous suspicious comparisons between "smartness" (not giftedness... this should have been a red flag from the start) and mental illness. They are not the same. Both are real, and this book manages to trivialize both.
• 
  Danine

  As a bright, sensitive and creative person I can say that trying to read this book really hurt. I really do want my money back. Guy goes on and on and on about being around smart people then writes a book about it.
• 
  Daniil Marchenko

  A fascinating new perspective on Obsessions, Compulsions, Mania, Depression, and other mental ailments that pester otherwise smart people.
• 
  Beth Gea

  Me siento un poco entre dos aguas con este libro.
  
  Por una parte, me ha gustado mucho cómo presenta y despatologiza muchos de los desafíos que las personas "listas", como él las llama, tenemos por el hecho de que nuestro cerebro funciona como funciona.
  
  También hay cosas de la psicología natural (término que no conocía) que me han parecido razonables, como el hecho de que somos nosotras las que creamos nuestro propio sentido en la vida y que no tenemos que ir a buscarlo o sentarnos a esperarlo porque no está fuera de nosotras.
  
  Sin embargo, hay varios momentos en el libro en el que me he sentido como en un anuncio de teletienda en el que me estaban intentando vender la noción de la psicología natural como el único camino que alguien "listo" puede seguir.
  
  Así que, como con todo, me quedo con lo que tiene sentido para mi.
• 
  Meredith McDermott

  This book is basically an exultation of natural psychology as the answer to everything. Though natural psychology does seem like an insightful field, it’s just that. . .an insightful field, *not* the gospel. The author was derisive of faith traditions in the healing of hurts. I’m fine with him writing from a non-faith perspective; I just don’t think he had intellectual integrity in speaking with such generality & hostility. Some takeaways were quite good: smart people often hurt over their need for anything & everything to be meaningful. . .through self-awareness & mindfulness, the smart person can give himself permission to take a break from meaning-making & rest from the mental taxation. Some chapters were actually quite brilliant; I just think the book is mis-billed.
• 
  AJ

  This book was pretty awful. I liked the idea but not when the author did things like equating having racing thoughts with being manic, or saying that depression comes from negatively evaluating life. In that case, I will just FOCUS ON THE POSITIVE!!!1 and be totally cured of depression forever. Awesome! Also, saying that racing thoughts = mania is like saying having a tickle in your throat = having pertussis. No. Just no.
• 
  Jess Michaels

  This book is one long infomercial for "Natural Psychology", the school of psychology that Maisel subscribes to. The first couple of chapters were really good but then it just became a commercial with very little value as far as strategies to overcome the problems outlined in the book. It was incredibly frustrating to read and difficult to get through.
• 
  Tomáš Richter

  If the title sounds like you should read the book, you most probably should. Drop everything you are doing and read it, it can be done over a weekend.
• 
  Anthony

  I really wanted to like this book. It was suggested (and gifted!) to me by a dear friend after a long conversation about creativity, mental health, and other such topics. I dove right in as soon as it arrived.
  
  Imagine taking a seat in a new coffeehouse in town. The atmosphere is nice, mostly pleasant, etc. You receive your perfectly acceptable yet unremarkable drink. After a few sips, a friendly stranger strikes up a conversation. The dialogue is, like the drink, perfectly fine at the start, though perhaps a little on the overly-positive side of things. As the conversation grows, you get the feeling that you're being sold something, something flawless and most definitely not "these other things." By the 20-minute mark, this person is clearly trying to recruit you for whatever group they're representing (religious group, fraternity, etc.) or they're clearly trying to sell you something (remember those folks who sold knives?). That's how this book feels.
  
  To the book's credit, most (85-90%) of the questions it asks (both within the chapters as well as the end-of-chapter questions) are good, bordering on excellent. These questions should be asked and answered by everyone, and I applaud the fact that we are given the opportunity to face these questions. If the author would have simply made a book called "Some questions regarding creativity, sensitivity, and mental health," grouped the questions accordingly with brief, objective introductions to each group, this book would be getting regular praise.
  
  Unfortunately, as the book progresses, it feels less like a book and more like an infomercial. Page 111 is where the complete transition happens. In one (of many) anecdotal testimonies, someone who we are told is not the author says:
  
  "It was at this point, looking for resources that might help her find some peace and comfort, that I encountered Natural Psychology: The New Psychology of Meaning. Before giving it to her, I read it myself. It was a great encouragement to me and inspired me to keep doing what I had already begun and more."
  
  Here is where the book lost me (though I still slogged through it). The book could have been an insightful discussion on the complex connections between and among creativity, sensitivity, and pain (as clearly stated in the subtitle). Instead, at this point (page 111), the author's true intentions are revealed. The endorsement for another of his books, conveniently appearing in a testimony that we can't check and can't verify, is a little too gross to ignore.
  
  Also difficult to ignore are the facts that none of the (few) external studies the author references are cited, there's no bibliography, and no works referenced. The long Kafka quote lacks a citation as well as credit to the English translator (pretty sure Ein Hungerkünstler was originally written in German). All in all, as another reviewer put it, it pulls the old switcheroo on you.
  
  In my opinion, the way to benefit from this book is to find it in a library, write down the questions, write down the checklist from Chapter 16, and move on with your day.
  
• 
  Danielle

  Self help that plays to the ego by masquerading normal human experiences as the unique experiences of “smart" people to sell natural psychology as a lifestyle.
  
  But perhaps more than that:
  
  This book is an awkward one to have read and an awkward one to like, and perhaps I rated it a 3 rather than a 4 or a 5 to discount the fact that, by picking up this book, I am essentially saying, "I think I am smart and I think there are certain problems I have because I am smart." (Though I do not think the book deserves a 5 for reasons other than a defense of my definition of self; maybe a 3.5, all told.)
  
  It is uncouth to refer to oneself as "smart" and doing so often results in a tongue-lashing on the different forms intelligence can take and the shortcomings and biases of IQ as a measure of intelligence. Of course intelligence takes different forms, and it is very difficult to measure in any useful way, but even so, some people are able to apply reasoning and creativity in more ways than others (considering "intelligence" as a volume and so with more than one dimension, some people just take up more space).
  
  But culture (and American culture in particular) has such a strange relationship with education, that we cannot simply say one person is "smarter" than another. It seems as if so many people are perceived to be traumatized by standardized tests and the unevenness of the educational system that the only refrain that can be given by society is "all people are smart," even though, by doing so, we are obviating the need for such an adjective.
  
  So here is the problem: I, for example, was told my entire childhood that I was smart, and I used this adjective to form an understanding of myself, and I based decisions on it; I decided to study chemical engineering because it was a "difficult" major, and I leaned on my interest in numbers while minimizing my interest in language and the humanities; but now, I am older and out of school, and it is no longer as appropriate to view myself as "smart," especially in comparison with others; well, that sure is a rug pulled out from under me, and I suppose the adjectives I am left with include "short(er than average)," "blue-eyed," "American," and any other term that is objective in an empirically measurable way or not necessarily able to be placed along an ordinal scale.
  
  In other news, natural psychology seems v. interesting (but I am sure, without having looked into it at any depth, that it is mostly discredited in the field as New Age-y pseudo-science and will be revisited in some decades), and although I have not heard the term previously, it seems to match the view I have formed.