Learned Optimism

Rating:
Summary: Helped me to change the way I saw myself and my Life!
Review: I found the research done for the book the be stepping stones in learning why I had lost all enjoyment in life. Several Items mentioned did not register as affecting my outlook. Several days after reading them and thinking back over the comments I realized how they fit into the distorted picture I had of my life. This book caused me to look back over my life and see events for what they were, as opposed to personal attacks by some evil score keeper in the great beyond.

Rating:
Summary: Great book, but awful audio version!
Review: I received this book several years ago and can say it literally changed my life. It gives great advice on how to deal with habitual pessimism and the free-floating anxiety that often accompanies it. I use the techniques in the book and they really do work. My copy is dog-eared and tattered from lots of use!! Thank you Martin Seligman!!!!!!!!

I cannot recommend the audio version. I got it several years after buying the book, thinking it would be a nice refresher. It was so badly done I was amazed. The abridged version of the book is read in a very boring style and LOTS of minutes are wasted in a detailed explanation of how to do a written self-test. I remember thinking "I can just read the instructions, why are they reading all the instructions out loud?" Horrible.

So definitely BUY the book and benefit from it, but SKIP the tape version.