Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being

I have read most of Martin Seligman's books, and let me say up front I'm grateful for his work as founder of the positive psychology movement. There is a lot of data that a pessimistic take on events does not make for either physical health or general wellbeing--and these studies are so consistent it is hard to imagine they're all wrong. What if you tend to look a bit too much at the dark side of events? Can you change? The idea is not to become Pollyanna-to-the-point-of-stupidity, of course, but only to cultivate a somewhat sunnier outlook. Well, it turns out you can change, at least to an extent, and Dr. Seligman has pioneered techniques to increase optimism. I've personally found some of the methods he recommends helpful. I particularly like the "three blessings" exercise in which each day one picks out three things that have gone well. This helps shift the mind to a focus on what is good in everyday life. The idea of making a point of using "signature strengths" to cope on a daily basis with life's challenges is also useful. (A quiz to help you identify your strengths is included in this book.) I like the fact that positive psychology is based on empirical studies rather than wishful thinking, and there is data to show its techniques work.This is not a self-help book, however, but more of an account of Dr. Seligman's reconsideration of the ultimate goal of positive psychology. Rather than mere mood enhancement, he sees a different and broader aim--flourishing, which includes having good relationships with others and a generally meaningful life. There is an interesting discussion here of what makes for happiness in the truest sense. Also the book contains a detailed account of Dr. Seligman's pro bono work with the U.S. Army, fostering resilience. (I was moved by his revealing the personal motives--he is the grandson of immigrants lucky to escape the Holocaust--that led him to do this work.) There is abundant material on using positive psychology in corporate or school settings. All to my mind quite fascinating.So, to sum up, there's a lot here about the expanded theory and applying positive psychology in organizations. And it is all interesting and clearly written enough that I read this book eagerly in a couple of sittings. Still, people looking for an introduction to the field of positive psychology and in particular those who want to use its findings to become happier, might prefer Dr, Seligman's earlier book AUTHENTIC HAPPINESS. (FLOURISH does describe many of the same techniques mentioned in AUTHENTIC HAPPINESS but it has a broader focus.)If when I read a psychology book I take away one technique for fostering better relationships--something I didn't know before--I'm thrilled. The information here on how to help people celebrate their wins in life and increase their joy was eye-opening. You say "Of course" when you read this, and then thinking about it, you realize you've learned something new and useful. This is on many levels a great book.

Seligman, as he describes himself in the book, stands at the intersection of applied and basic research. As he notes, it can be a lonely place, but it results in a brilliant and useful book.This is a book that takes the conventional wisdom, of what psychology is about, and turns it into a new and useful direction. Instead of (largely ineffective) psychotherapy to manage depression or other negative psychological states, this book is about the positive psychology of how to flourish. In what I think is a nice bit of intellectual honesty, he reflects on his theory in his earlier book, Authentic Happiness, and in this book notes his errors and improves and expands his theory.There is an important warning here about academia. Seligman warns that too much of academic psychology is useless puzzle solving. Seligman wants academic psychology to pay more attention to solving real world psychological problems. This is an issue for psychology students at research intensive universities. Seligman states: "I mentally scanned (serially) the tenured faculty in the ten leading psychology departments in the world. Not a single one focused on work or on love or on play. They all worked on 'basic' processes: cognition, emotion, decision theory, perception. Where were the scholars who would help guide us about what makes life worth living?" (page 59).Seligman is equally critical of closed-minded clinical psychologists, such as those who opposed his initiatives for "evidence-based psychotherapy".In sum, this book represents the best of academic work as a public intellectual to help make life better through deep and insightful evidence-based analysis, clearly and interestingly written.As an aside, the book implicitly raises the public policy issue of how do the people who pay for their lifestyle, the taxpayers and tuition payers, motivate academics to more useful problem solving and less useless puzzle solving. And how do we prevent universities from doing to another generation what Seligman describes happened to him, that he was "miseducated". He states "Originally, I went into psychology to relieve human suffering and to increase human well-being. I thought I was well prepared to do this; but I was actually miseducated to this task. It took me decades to recover and to work my way out of solving puzzles and into solving problems." (page 55).