I feel like this is conflating "useful" and "helpful for self-therapy/actualization". Also, first, the arbitrary splitting of "eastern" and "western" philosophy is not particularly useful or...
Exemplary
I feel like this is conflating "useful" and "helpful for self-therapy/actualization".
Also, first, the arbitrary splitting of "eastern" and "western" philosophy is not particularly useful or applicable.
Philosophy is absolutely "useful" in general. Philosophy is what underpins legal systems, governmental systems. It comes into things like determining what the best course of action is for medical staff in tricky ethical situations.
It even comes into play with engineering. Boolean logic, which every CS student will have to take a class on, is also part of philospher, and was formalized by the philosopher George Boole.
Now, whether or not any of these help with self actualization is a different, and ultimately unanswerable question. Everyone is different. But, the more different ways of thinking you read about, the greater the probability you eventually find something that sticks.
For a more concrete suggestion, stoicism is easily applicable to real life and gives you tools to deal with stressful situations, and it is not about not having emotions.
I'd also add that you shouldn't really come out of nietzsche with just the impression that he's depressed and you should be depressed. That's a very pop-science, surface level reading of his work, that it's all about nihilism. To the degree works can be "misread", that seems to imply that you did not read them as closely as you should have.
I feel like this is conflating "useful" and "helpful for self-therapy/actualization".
Also, first, the arbitrary splitting of "eastern" and "western" philosophy is not particularly useful or applicable.
Philosophy is absolutely "useful" in general. Philosophy is what underpins legal systems, governmental systems. It comes into things like determining what the best course of action is for medical staff in tricky ethical situations.
It even comes into play with engineering. Boolean logic, which every CS student will have to take a class on, is also part of philospher, and was formalized by the philosopher George Boole.
Now, whether or not any of these help with self actualization is a different, and ultimately unanswerable question. Everyone is different. But, the more different ways of thinking you read about, the greater the probability you eventually find something that sticks.
For a more concrete suggestion, stoicism is easily applicable to real life and gives you tools to deal with stressful situations, and it is not about not having emotions.
I'd also add that you shouldn't really come out of nietzsche with just the impression that he's depressed and you should be depressed. That's a very pop-science, surface level reading of his work, that it's all about nihilism. To the degree works can be "misread", that seems to imply that you did not read them as closely as you should have.