Aristotle's guide to self-persuasion How ancient rhetoric, Taylor Swift, and your own soul can help you change your life

Jay Heinrichs

Book - 2025

"Rhetoric once sat at the center of elite education. Alexander the Great, Shakespeare, and Martin Luther King, Jr., used it to build empires, write deathless literature, and inspire democracies. Now it will help you to take leadership over yourself; not through pop psychology or empty inspiration, but with persuasive tools that have been tested for more than three thousand years. In Aristotle's Guide to Self-Persuasion, Heinrichs helps readers persuade their most difficult audiences-themselves-by using techniques invented by the likes of Aristotle and Cicero and deployed by our culture's most persuasive characters. With their help, rhetoric can convert the most negative situations into positive ones. Heinrichs brings in examp...les from history and pop culture-Winston Churchill, Iron Man, Dolly Parton, and the woman who serendipitously invented the chocolate chip cookie-to illustrate the concepts. But the core of the book tests the tools of self-persuasion and asks: Can the same techniques that seduce lovers, sell diet books, and overturn governments help us achieve our most desired goals? Filled with entertaining and scientific studies that showcase the power of what language can do for you, Aristotle's Guide to Self-Persuasion will teach you how to be the most successful person you can be, just by talking to yourself"-- Provided by publisher.

Saved in:
1 copy ordered
Subjects
Published
[New York] : Crown [2025]
Language
English
Main Author
Jay Heinrichs (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
304 p.
ISBN
9780593735275
Contents unavailable.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Heinrichs (Thank You for Arguing), publisher of the Aristotle's Guide to Soul Bending newsletter, explains in this edifying primer how readers can turn the power of persuasion inward. According to the author, while persuasion from others can be blocked by "dissonance between your identity and theirs," self-persuasion works because it allows individuals to push themselves into closer alignment with their own idealized self-identity; once that shift (in action or mindset) is enacted, it can be transformed into habit. Harnessing ideas from Aristotle and other philosophers, the author unpacks why "faking it until you make it" is an effective strategy and outlines more surprising ways rhetoric can influence thought--such as using irony to ease oneself into a positive frame of mind ("Start by speaking ironically about an excruciating task: It was... fun! Then repeat it so often it no longer seems ironic"). Combining cogent philosophical explanations with entertaining examples from popular culture (including how Taylor Swift and Muhammad Ali used the power of persuasion), Heinrichs provides a quirky, sometimes counterintuitive look at how to harness the power of the mind. It's a spirited and innovative application of an ancient Greek art. (July)

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