This is the sequel to the author's previous book on Adler, "The Courage to Be Disliked." The previous one is centered on the core principles of Adler's life lessons, namely, 1) Be independent, 2) Live in harmony with others, 3) Believe in your own worth, and 4) Regard people as friends. This time, the focus is more on lesson #4. In other words, this lesson can be paraphrased in one term: social interest. In Adler's term, "social interest" is the translation of German term, "Gemeinschafts-Gefuhl", which can be translated more directly as "community feeling". The author presumes that Adler translated it into "social interest" so as to emphasize the aspect of "putting one's interest in another person's perspective".
We can respect others by employing this social interest, in other words, putting ourselves in others' shoes, in the most truthful sense. In this way, we can acknowledge the worth of that person, as he/she is. This is the starting point of living in harmony with others. In friendship and love, the more difficult tasks of Adler's, following the same logic, we must first give, instead of expecting to receive. Tasks must be separated. Thus, when we give, we should not expect anything in return. Returning or not, that is the task of the other person.
In this book, the author quotes many lines from "The Art of Loving" by Erich Fromm, which fascinated me when I was in the college. As Fromm puts, it we must learn to love, not to be loved. Since this is the core lesson from this book, I believe I can call this book an explanation of "The Art of Loving" as well as of Adler's books.
The only drawback of this book (and of the previous one) is the structure of the book. Since it is written in the form of dialogue, it does not construct well onto your mind. Of course the dialogue form has a great advantage of easy reading. However, the book leaves you less organized with regard to the lessons learned. Perhaps it is Adler who is not so well organized. But still, the author could have done better in organizing Adler's unorganized ideas.