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The Terrible Price of Not Choosing Yourself - The Philosophy of Osamu Dazai

Pursuit of Wonder

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In this video, we explore one of the most popular Japanese novels of all time, "No Longer Human." Written as a sort of semi-fictionalized autobiography, the work's dark themes and intense descriptions of internal experience reveal a side of a humanity many of us know but rarely see from the outside.

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20 Comments

@PursuitofWonder Creator 4 months ago Pinned

Thanks for watching. Hope you found this dive into No Longer Human (and the human psyche) interesting. If you want to explore more of the world's best books, check out Blinkist here: https://blinkist.com/wonder. With my link, you get a free trial and save an additional 30% off.

@parvativalley3774 4 months ago

When poverty comes in at the door, love flies out of the window.

Osamu Dazai.

@MYD88-3p22 4 months ago

Emily Dickerson - I'm Nobody.
I'm nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody, too? Then there's a pair of us — don't tell! They'd banish us, you know. How dreary to be somebody!

@theselfelevation 4 months ago

Dazai understood something most people never name. What he was describing — the slow dissolving of yourself to stay loved — has a name in psychology: the "false self," a concept from Winnicott where the version of you that got rewarded as a child slowly replaces the version that was actually you. The price isn't paid in one dramatic moment. It's paid in the silent betrayals — laughing when something hurt, agreeing when you disagreed, staying when every part of you wanted to leave. Dazai's gift was naming the cost. The harder work is interrupting the trade.

@Surface_Depth 4 months ago

Yozo spent his entire life protecting himself from being known and rejected, which never actually materialized the way he expected. But the protective system couldn't update on that information. It just kept running. The jester persona wasn't a mask over an intact self. It was a regulatory strategy that repeated long enough to become the self. By the time the armour had fully formed, there was nothing left to protect that was obviously separate from it.
That's the trap the video is circling, but doesn't quite name it. The strategy designed to prevent rejection ended up guaranteeing the isolation it was built to avoid. Not because something was wrong with Yozo. Because that's what happens when a protection system runs without ever getting the signal that the danger is over.

@ArthurVance6 1 month ago

The most heartbreaking part is that Yozo was so good at acting 'normal' that no one ever saw his real pain. It’s a powerful reminder that we never truly know the silent battles the people around us are fighting. Thank you for this deep analysis.

@technicalidea428 2 months ago

For anyone who constantly feels overwhelmed, tense or mentally exhausted, Clara Hartley’s anxiety quiz could be a useful place to start. It only takes a few minutes.

@noen2424 4 months ago

I relate deeply to the book as a neurodivergent person, reading it felt like someone finally put everything I feel into words. If it was just depression, he wouldn't feel that way ever since childhood. Of course, I'm doing way better than Yozo but the way he described the fear of people, of being perceived, distorted self image, I too have felt that as long as I can remember, feeling that something is seriously wrong with me. Knowing about my neurodivergence was life changing and is the main reason I'm doing better now.

@kurtoneal 4 months ago

in the time of AI slop we can see more and more faces which were for years hidden behind camera
You have awesome vice my friend and great content.

@DrMelody8 4 months ago

And everyone is... unique. As unique as their DNA, fingerprints, you name it!

@건강백서-z2p 4 months ago

Not gonna lie, this video has one of the best vibes I’ve seen in a while. Super clean editing, beautiful shots, and a really relaxing atmosphere 🌙

@hezha1050 4 months ago

You are overreading into this, the story was the writer publicly stripping naked and self-inflicting a punishment he felt he deserved out of guilt. The very first line tells you all, he felt shame and this story was a way to strip naked to the world as an atonement and punishment. Addicts and depressed people from cultures that heavily ostracize their "victims" will feel that way, the eastern cultures are especially harsh for the simple reason that you dont act like the rest of the society.

@ProsperPeter-x4u 4 months ago

7:21We must live with the kind of courage to be rejected, to be misunderstood, to be disliked , other we risk loosing our sense of self completely.

@LocomotiveThought 4 months ago

"Perhaps the purpose of your life is to serve as a lesson to others."

@triplemmm333 4 months ago

I almost forgot that his book made me recognize myself being like him and made me decide to choose a different outcome.

@wildwoodbird 4 months ago

Functioning in society often feels like a compromise, but there are many good moments to do or say something authentic. If you like to change the way of the world it is even necesary.

@KardashevSkale 4 months ago

I escaped this experience - I later on see that you can live with anxiety once you understand it, but depression is something else. Be grateful if you’ve lived with depression and come back out.

@EdwardM.1 4 months ago

No disrespect to the author, but he railed about other people's deceit but didn't see his own self-deception. He claimed to want "nothing" and pictures himself as without desire -- and yet he was willing to sacrifice his very self for the sake of acceptance, belonging, attention, and approval. That is not a boy who wants nothing, including food. That is a boy who is starving of love. (And btw, this creation of the false self and abandonment of the real is an extremely common pattern in the development of personality disorders.)

@adriatical9016 4 months ago

nearly made me cry from how close to home this hits

@TalesWorthHearing 5 days ago

No Longer Human isn't just a story about severe isolation; it’s a mirror for anyone who has ever compromised their truth just to keep the peace. It really makes you realize that the discomfort of being rejected for who you are is far less damaging than the quiet despair of being accepted for who you aren't. Thank you for another incredible breakdown.