Book recommendation – Stefanie Stahl – The Child In You: The Breakthrough Method for Bringing Out Your Authentic Self

Posted on August 21, 2025November 22, 2025 by admin

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Stefanie Stahl’s bestseller is now one of the best-known guidebooks in the German-speaking world when it comes to psychology, self-help, and personal development. Using clear language and numerous practical exercises, the author presents a model that helps those affected to better understand their own inner patterns—and to change them.

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The central concept is the “inner child,” which is divided into two parts:

The shadow child: This represents our wounds, fears, and negative beliefs that originated in childhood and shape our thinking and relationships.
The sun child: This represents our healthy, self-confident, and lovable self, which we can actively strengthen and develop.

Stahl vividly shows how many of our problems—whether in relationships, at work, or in dealing with ourselves—are based on unconscious conditioning. With the help of reflection exercises, visualizations, and a “workbook” approach, she offers ways to recognize these patterns and transform them step by step. The methods used to teach readers how to calm the shadow child and nurture the sun child are particularly practical.

The strengths of the book are its understandable language, its proximity to everyday experience, and its clearly structured exercises that can be implemented immediately. Criticism may lie in the fact that the model is deliberately simplified and does not fully reflect complex psychological dynamics. However, in the context of self-help, it is precisely this simplicity that makes the book so successful.

Conclusion:

The Child in You is an empathetic, practical guide that helps many readers develop greater self-acceptance, heal old wounds, and go through life with inner strength. It is not an academic work, but rather an invitation to personal growth—understandable, approachable, and motivating.

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Book recommendation – Rolf Dobelli – The Art of Thinking Clearly: The Secrets of Perfect Decision-Making

Posted on July 30, 2025November 22, 2025 by admin

52 Thinking errors you should leave to others

From an evolutionary perspective, our brains are not programmed for the modern world we live in today. This results in thinking errors that should not be underestimated and can have a significant negative impact, e.g., on finances, career, and well-being.

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Overview & central idea

In his bestseller, Rolf Dobelli presents 52 thinking errors, cognitive biases, and typical fallacies that cloud our judgment. From “confirmation bias” to the “halo effect” to the “clustering illusion,” the book is a compendium of psychological pitfalls that accompany us in our everyday lives, at work, and when making decisions. The goal: to raise awareness of these errors in order to think more clearly, rationally, and calmly.

Structure & content

Short chapters: Each of the 52 chapters is devoted to a single error in thinking, compactly presented in 3–5 pages.
Relevance to everyday life: Examples are taken from economics, history, psychology, or everyday situations.
Language: concise, understandable, sometimes pointed and humorous.

Examples of cognitive biases covered:

Survivorship bias – We only see the successful and forget the invisible ones who have failed.
Confirmation bias – We only look for information that supports our opinion.
Action bias – We prefer to act immediately, even when doing nothing would be smarter.
Halo effect – A single positive characteristic overshadows our overall judgment.
Clustering illusion – We recognize patterns where there is actually only coincidence.

Impact & benefits

Dobelli does not offer ready-made solutions, but rather aims to raise awareness. He does not advocate a “perfectly rational” life, but rather greater distance from our spontaneous misjudgments. Those who recognize the patterns can pause at crucial moments and make better decisions—whether in finance, career, or personal relationships.

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Book recommendation – Kibeom Lee, Michael C. Ashton – The H Factor of Personality

Posted on July 10, 2025November 22, 2025 by admin

Overview & central idea

In “The H Factor of Personality,” psychologists Kibeom Lee and Michael C. Ashton present their scientifically based HEXACO personality model—an extension of the well-known Big Five model. The focus is particularly on the H factor (honesty-humility), i.e., the dimension of honesty-modesty. The core thesis: This personality trait influences our behavior, our morals, and our interactions with others more than is often assumed.

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Structure & content

The book provides a generally understandable introduction to the six dimensions of the HEXACO model:

Honesty-Humility – Fairness, sincerity, modesty versus manipulation, greed, selfishness.
Emotionality – Anxiety, dependence, empathy.
Extraversion – Sociability, self-confidence, activity.
Agreeableness – Patience, forbearance, willingness to cooperate.
Conscientiousness – Orderliness, sense of duty, diligence.
Openness to Experience – Curiosity, creativity, interest in new ideas.

Key messages:

The H factor is morally decisive: people with a high H value act fairly, modestly, and cooperatively; people with a low H value tend to display narcissistic, manipulative, or Machiavellian traits.
Practical relevance: The H factor affects relationships, professional success, political attitudes, and even social trust.
Research & everyday life: Lee and Ashton combine scientific studies with easy-to-understand examples from everyday life and pop culture.

Style & readability

The book is deliberately not purely academic, but written in a way that is easy to understand. It combines research findings with entertaining illustrations and everyday stories.