Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment Author: Martin E. P. Seligman | Language: English | ISBN:
B000FBJFWI | Format: PDF
Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment Description
A national bestseller,
Authentic Happiness launched the revolutionary new science of Positive Psychology—and sparked a coast-to-coast debate on the nature of real happiness.
According to esteemed psychologist and bestselling author Martin Seligman, happiness is not the result of good genes or luck. Real, lasting happiness comes from focusing on one’s personal strengths rather than weaknesses—and working with them to improve all aspects of one’s life. Using practical exercises, brief tests, and a dynamic website program, Seligman shows readers how to identify their highest virtues and use them in ways they haven’t yet considered. Accessible and proven,
Authentic Happiness is the most powerful work of popular psychology in years.
- File Size: 1670 KB
- Print Length: 336 pages
- Publisher: Free Press (October 2, 2002)
- Sold by: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc
- Language: English
- ASIN: B000FBJFWI
- Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #23,009 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #16
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Mental Health > Emotions - #25
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Behavioral Sciences > Cognitive Science - #25
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Science > Behavioral Sciences > Cognitive Psychology
- #16
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Mental Health > Emotions - #25
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Behavioral Sciences > Cognitive Science - #25
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Science > Behavioral Sciences > Cognitive Psychology
Written by the former president of the American Psychological Association, and author of over a dozen books including the popular Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life, this title is one of the better selling happiness books out there.
While this is the kind of book I could write a really long review about, I think I'll just discuss what I consider to be the best bits for those looking for ways to become happier- which I think is why most people would buy this book. Soooo.....
1) the book provides the reader with a "happiness formula", which is H = S + C + V. This works out to happiness = your genetic Set point + intervening Circumstances + factors under you Voluntary control. So, since your can't do much about changing your genetics, when it comes to becoming happier, that leaves room for improvement in the areas of circumstances and voluntary activities.
2) the book suggests that if you want to lastingly raise your level of happiness by changing the external circumstances of your life, you should: live in a wealthy democracy, get married, avoid negative events and negative emotion, acquire a rich social network, and get religion. Conversely, you needn't bother to do the following: make more money, stay healthy, get as much education as possible, or try to change your race or move to a sunnier climate. However even if you could alter all of these things, it would not do much for you as this stuff accounts for only a small part of your happiness. On to Voluntary efforts...
As a psychologist, I completely understand Martin Seligman's drive to free psychology from its obsession with negativity. Freud, he writes, made many people "unduly embittered about their past and unduly passive about their future," while clinical psychology focussed on diagnosing and treating mental disorders. In his new book, Authentic Happiness, Seligman goes a long way towards breaking psychology free from its love affair with pathology and replacing it with a far more positive approach.
I don't know of anyone with better credentials to guide readers through what psychology has discovered about happiness. Seligman's own research has contributed greatly to our understanding of the entire range of human experience from profound depression to "abundant gratification." His early, groundbreaking studies of learned helplessness provided great insight into inescapable trauma as a major source of helplessness and depression. He went on to study "learned optimism" as a powerful antidote to depression--his earlier book by that name is invaluable.
Now, Seligman sets out to provide readers with the insights and tools from the relatively new field of positive psychology. He does this with a rich mixture of anecdotes, personal revelations and research. In addition, he provides frequent self-assessments and exercises. I think that almost anyone who takes the time to read what Seligman has to say, who takes and thinks about the self assessments, and who does the exercises, will start thinking and acting in ways that lead to lasting happiness.
It's important to realize that Seligman is not a self-help guru by any stretch of the imagination. He is a leading research psychologist who builds on solid experimental findings.
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