Jay Heinrichs. Aristotle's Guide to Self-Persuasion - How Ancient Rhetoric, Taylor Swift, and Your Own Soul Can Help You Change Your Life. Crown Publishing Group. 2025.

Author interview with [Brett McKay][4] - 52 minutes

Contents

Introduction - Leave the Rut - The Useful Art of Soulbending

• Count the Ways
• Navigating Change

Part 1 Readiness

Soul - Motivate Yourself

• Your Soul is a Scout
• Time to Sync Up
• Skip the Mona Lisa
• The Tool
  • Soul Detector

Kairos - Pluck the Day

• The Case of the Missing Camel
• Horace's Day of Plucking
• Gap Spotting
• Chaotic Reframing
• Exigence
• Deliberative Rhetoric
• Nostalgic Cure
• The Tools
  • Gap Spotting
  • Chaotic Reframing
  • Exigence
  • Deliberative Rhetoric
  • Nostalgic Cure

Inspiration - Find Illumination

• 5 classes
  • Verbal
  • Plenary
  • Moral
  • Mechanical
  • Dynamical
• Think of an Idea as a Molecule
• To Solve a Problem, Refine the Exigence
• Call on a Model, or a Prophet
• Improve an Old Idea
• Emerge Phoenix-like from a Failure
• Create an Opening in Your Mind
• The Tools
  • Compounding
  • Modeling
  • Refining
  • Liberality

Hyperbole - Blow Things Up

• Go Fetch
• Achieving the Bald Spot
• The Tool
  • Hyperbole

Part 2 Grasp

Ethos - Trust Yourself

• The Movie Star Conundrum
• Step One: Fake It Decorously
• Step Two: Make Friends with Yourself
• Step Three: Use the Lapse
• Step Four: Play Up Your Strengths
• Step Five: Make it a Cause
• The Tools
  • Decorum
  • Caring
  • Philos
  • Sin Recovery
  • Craft
  • Cause

Pathos - Control Your Mood

• Confidence: Be the Billionaire
• Shame: Be the Zipper
• Fear: The Secret Is Timing
• Envy: The Most Underrated Sin
• Laughter: Be the Fall Guy
• Desire: Don't Trip Over the Donut
• Charm: Get That Sweet Placebo Effect
• Catharsis: The Adele Cure
• The Tools
  • Confidence
  • Shame
  • Fear
  • Envy
  • Humor
  • Desire Reversal
  • Charm
  • Catharsis

Logos - Come to Believe

• Induction: Detect the Cause
• Deduction: Turn Belief into Action
• The Tools
  • Induction
  • Deduction
  • Enthymeme

Framing - Define Your Life

• Why Meanings Are So Meaningful
• Mapping Your Personal Reality
• Suffering: Welcome the Sting
• Useful Fallacy: Post Hoc
• Useful Fallacy: Antecedent
• Useful Fallacy: False Analogy
• Useful Fallacy: Hasty Generalization
• Useful Fallacy: Appeal to Popularity
• Useful Fallacy: The Unit Fallacy
• The Tools
  • Framing
  • Fallacies

Part 3 Action

Habit - Adjust Your Routine

• The Unexciting Upside of Being Regular
• The Lure: Sex and Honey
• The Ramp: Don the Shorts
• Your Very Own Time Zone
• The Tools
  • Lure and Ramp
  • Tortoise Method

Charms - Change the Voice in Your Head

• The Magic of Holy Cows
• The Candy-Coated War Cry
• Pump Up Your Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex!
• Serenading the Dancing Cockroach
• Tropical Soul Benders
• Metaphor: Fight On, Topiary Man
• Irony: Stephen Colbert's Sharp Dullness
• Metonymy: Your Own Private Labrador
• Synecdoche: A Most Delicious Rock
• The Tools
  • Paean
  • Repetition
  • Metaphor
  • Metonymy
  • Synecdoche
  • Pidgin thinking

Narrative - Tell Your Story

• The Pizza Connection
• Knotty Tie Fighting
• The Heroic Space Farmer
• You On The Big Screen
  • Catalyst
  • Break into Two
  • Midpoint
  • All is Lost
  • Break into Three
• The Tools
  • Event Connections
  • Hero's Journey
  • Beats
  • Dramatic Goodies

Experimentation - Test the Tools

Part 4 Solution

Joy - Find Happiness

• Fortune: The Thread Cutter
• Functioning: The Better Angel
• Framing: Atomic Happiness
• The Fourfold Cure-All
  • Fear of God's Punishment
  • Fear of Death
  • Fear of Pain
  • Anxiety About Earthly Goods
• Wonder of Wonders

Peroration - Tap the Power of Words

The Tools

• Soul
  • Just
  • Courageous
  • Restrained
  • Magnanimous
  • Liberal
  • Prudent
  • Wise
• Soul Detector
• Decorum
• Ethos
  • Caring
  • Craft
  • Cause
  • Sin Recovery
• Emotions
  • Confidence
  • Shame
  • Fear
  • Envy
  • Laughter
  • Desire
  • Charm
  • Catharsis
  • Cognitive Ease
• Logic
  • Induction
  • Enthymeme
  • Framing
  • Broaden the Issue
  • Redefine the Terms
  • Focus
  • Deliberative Rhetoric
• Habits
  • Lure and Ramp
  • Tortoise Method
  • Personal Time Zone
• Figures and Tropes
  • Figures
    • Paean
  • Tropes
    • Analogical Thinking
    • Metaphor
    • Irony
    • Synecdoche
    • Metonymy
    • Pidgin Thinking
    • Charms
    • Repetition
• Hyperbole
• Time (Kairos)
  • Gap Mapping
  • Chaotic Reframing
  • Exigence
  • Nostalgia Cure
• Story
  • Connected Events
  • Tying and Untying
  • Hero's Journey
  • Beats
  • Catalyst
  • Break into Two
  • Midpoint
  • All is Lost
  • Break into Three
• Inspiration
  • Compounding
  • Modeling
  • Refinement
  • Failure
  • Liberality

Further Reading

• Rhetoric
• Aristotle
• Sophists
• Cicero
• Stoicism
• Epicureanism
• Magic and Charms
• Humanism and the Humanities
• Storytelling
• Happiness
• Words

Acknowledgments

Index