Rating: 
Summary: Unfortunately unoriginal
Review: Flow is an exciting concept, and a truly dynamic experience - but that doesn't mean this is a great book. The author has basically taken the concept articulated by earlier psychologists such as Maslow and Freud and tried to put a modern, quantitative spin on it. Anyway, isn't losing yourself in a creative activity common sense? We don't need high-falutin' academics and their "studies" to prove what we already know. Furthermore, the entire concept is now so much a part of the public consciousness that it has been bastardized, marginalized and trivialized. I doubt one in a hundred readers of this book will regularly find flow experiences - whereas are our hardworking, less introspective and more realistic forebears would easily find flow without having read this pseudo-masterpiece.
Rating: 
Summary: Studies the history and current analysis of psychology
Review: A really interesting read, but a bit slow unless you love studying and learning about psychology & the mind. It delves into the history of psychology as well as a modern analysis of focusing one's energy to truely accomplish everything we want.
Rating:
Summary: Stimulating, motivating.
Review: An excellent insight into the human mind. He helps you realize how to set your self up for more "flow" situations, therefore, setting your self up for a happier life. A great book for helping one find what truly interests her and how she can discover a more productive and meaningful life. To the reader from Diamond Bar, CA: Nowhere in the book does Csikszentmihalyi claim to be "God like." His theories can be applied to a religious life as well as a secular life. If anything "Flow" is a way to further explore your spirituality.
Rating: 
Summary: If you want to Flow experience read your Bible
Review: Man will always continue to seek the meaning of life. Each generation asks what purpose they serve to bring true meaning and purpose to existence. Without purpose and a greater good, man suffers in mediocrity and daily chaos. Most people desire to achieve a new goal or higher status in life only to discover that once obtained, dissatisfaction occurs and a new goal must be established. It is this intuitive hunger for achievement beyond that which we possess that prevents long-term happiness and peace. Most people never utilize positive entropy to find true fulfillment but continue in the dark, an abyss, which consumes their daily lives. Throughout the book, Csikszentmihalyi hinges his flow premise on the idea that man through evolution continues to gain more freedom and consciousness. He cites the Protestant reformation and the American Constitution as moments in time that freed man from existing ideologies and oppression from either the Roman Catholic Church or the aristocratic government as examples of this evolution of our consciousness. [pg. 22] It is my belief these negative entropies were actual paradigm shifts that occurred because man naturally desires freedom over oppression and tyranny.
The author does not address how our physical well being affects our physic energy? Depression, a chemical imbalance with the brain or physical discomfort from the pain of an injury can play a major role in how we perceive the world. Granted, our days are full of choices. We can turn negative entropy into a positive attitude; however, there can be a lack of control over consciousness because of the physical or chemical imbalances that occur along the journey of life. Where does one find happiness when our physic energy is affected beyond our control? Personally, I regard the ideas of Csikszentmihalyi and other philosophical writings like his as man's feeble attempt at achieving "god like" status. If he had read scripture not as simply a bibliography, but as a guide on how to live, believing in its divine inspiration, his heart would be opened to see the entropy of God's flow. He would find the happiness he writes about and the true awakening of a slumbering consciousness.
Rating: 
Summary: revealing
Review: Personally revealing to me. Opened my eyes to why I enjoyed some things that I did not think I would and pointed me in the direction of setting myself up to enjoy more.
Rating:
Summary: Two Thumbs up!!
Review: Very rarely do you see authors go into the level of detail as did Mr.Mihaly! The book is small and is packed. If you intend to read it in a day and get everything what he wants to say, it will be as difficult as spelling his last name:)[One of the 1-star rater called it a "rediculous spelling". eeee! The spelling of "ridiculous" is not "rediculous" buddy]. The only drawback is that it combines a self-help and a textbook into one but nevertheless its good!
Rating:
Summary: the thinking man
Review: anybody who has bothered to read this book and is not impressed greatly is either a) an idiot who cannot grasp a concept like "flow"
b) someone full of envy or a deep hatred for the writer This is not a novel where you can worry about the frikkin writing style or any other bs. for that matter. This is the book that can change your entire life for the better if you care enough to get its fundamental message, period.
Rating: 
Summary: Learn about others' flow or flow yourself
Review: Reading this book is not a very good idea if you actually want to attain the so-called "flow." Though I read this book a few years ago and have forgotten everything it "teaches," I know personally about the "flow" which he discusses and can tell you that it cannot be learned through reading any book. My flow, which I might add is still difficult to attain and sustain, comes from twelve years of consistent musical training as well as a low-stress environment and intense pursuit of that goal. Any thoughts about other things, such as what would accomplish flow, is certain to make you fall off the wave.
Rating:
Summary: Inconsequencial
Review: I can honestly say that, my entire life has been a sort of search for a happy state of equilibrium, or "flow" as Csikszentmihaly puts it. According to Csikszen (for short), flow is more or less being a state of involvement with an an activity - work, sports, whatever - to the point where everything else it tuned out. Csikszen even goes so far as to say that this is in fact happiness. I have various issues with this book. For one, it is boring. Csikszen's concept is flow is interesting for about five pages, and then it starts drag. Although expressing the concept through a variety of different stories and examples, monotonous redundancy quickly set in. Secondly, Csikszen doesn't seem to achieve exellence in any department. This is neither a good self-help book nor a ground-breaking piece of science. And for all the psychology I have read, I would be hardpressed to label this psychology either. In any event, it is certainly not good psychology. It is just one overly simple view of what happiness is, expressed over and over again as Csikszen recounts the experiences of different sujects "flowing". Finally, the book completely side-steps a real treatment of psychological neuroses. If you are unhappy because you suffer from serious issues that must be understood, contextualized and overcome, this is not the book for you. This book naively assumes that all problems vanish or are forgotten forever by focusing on the moment - and as far as the author is concerned, it doesn't matter what one focuses on. I picture a manic-depressive "flowing" on legos all day (my favorite form of flow). The Kids in the Hall film, "Brain Candy," quickly comes to mind. This is a trifling book that is not worth your time. If you are interested in "flowing" in the first place, you need not read the book, because it will get you no closer to the immaculate "flow" experience. That said, if you are looking for ethically-charged, important, consequencial type of flow, seek out your local Buddhist organization. Indeed, "Flow" reads like a dry, watered-down, Westernized version of Zen Buddhism, for which it is no substitute.
Rating:
Summary: flow
Review: Please send me information if there is a spanish edition
sincerely yours
Raul
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