Rating: 
Summary: Great Overview on the Bases and Benefits of Optimism!
Review: Although I was familiar with most of the research described in this book, I had never connected it all together to understand its full meaning until I read this book. So whether you are new to the subject or an old hand, I think you will like and benefit from what you find here. We are making great strides towards understanding how healthy psychological states are formed, operate, and are improved. This book brings you up-to-date on where much of that thinking is now. Dr. Vaughan starts with the role that emotions play. Essentially, emotions tend to overload our rational mental processes. Getting those emotions under control helps us then to move on to make more appropriate decisions. There are many beautiful passages in the book that explain how optimism is hard-wired in the brain through parent-child interaction, especially during the infant years. No parent should miss this information. You are building your child's emotional infrastructure with your early attention! Those hard-wired reactions either allow us to modulate our emotional reactions well (which lets us see the glass as half-full) or poorly (which often leads us to see the same glass as half-empty). These are connected to a sense of confidence about how much control we have over the world around us. Those who have that confidence put forth more effort, find more options, and succeed much more often. This is confirmed in both animal (rats swimming) and human (efforts to solve problems) experiments. So optimism is a very valuable state to nurture. Now, if your upbringing wasn't perfect, you should still be optimistic because there are things you can do now to overcome those early handicaps that slow down your optimism. Smiling, thinking positive thoughts, changing your physiology in other ways, and exercising can all help. The author (a psycholoanalyst) also believes that this form of therapy can help. She uses a series of fictional cases about problems and dreams to show how discussing those images can sort out the meaning of the imagery to give a person more self-confidence and emotional control. To further round out your understanding of this subject, I also recommend that you read The Science of Happiness which contains much valuable information on brain physiology that complements the observations here, especially in how depression is overcome and avoided. The two books and subjects are strongly related. Whatever you do, seek out the best. Ask yourself daily, where is there vast opportunity in front of me that I can grasp now? As you experience finding that opportunity and capturing it, you will grow in optimism about your ability to do so continuously.
Rating:
Summary: Great Overview on the Bases and Benefits of Optimism!
Review: Although I was familiar with most of the research described in this book, I had never connected it all together to understand its full meaning until I read this book. So whether you are new to the subject or an old hand, I think you will like and benefit from what you find here. We are making great strides towards understanding how healthy psychological states are formed, operate, and are improved. This book brings you up-to-date on where much of that thinking is now.
Dr. Vaughan starts with the role that emotions play. Essentially, emotions tend to overload our rational mental processes. Getting those emotions under control helps us then to move on to make more appropriate decisions. There are many beautiful passages in the book that explain how optimism is hard-wired in the brain through parent-child interaction, especially during the infant years. No parent should miss this information. You are building your child's emotional infrastructure with your early attention! Those hard-wired reactions either allow us to modulate our emotional reactions well (which lets us see the glass as half-full) or poorly (which often leads us to see the same glass as half-empty). These are connected to a sense of confidence about how much control we have over the world around us. Those who have that confidence put forth more effort, find more options, and succeed much more often. This is confirmed in both animal (rats swimming) and human (efforts to solve problems) experiments. So optimism is a very valuable state to nurture. Now, if your upbringing wasn't perfect, you should still be optimistic because there are things you can do now to overcome those early handicaps that slow down your optimism. Smiling, thinking positive thoughts, changing your physiology in other ways, and exercising can all help. The author (a psycholoanalyst) also believes that this form of therapy can help. She uses a series of fictional cases about problems and dreams to show how discussing those images can sort out the meaning of the imagery to give a person more self-confidence and emotional control. To further round out your understanding of this subject, I also recommend that you read The Science of Happiness which contains much valuable information on brain physiology that complements the observations here, especially in how depression is overcome and avoided. The two books and subjects are strongly related. Whatever you do, seek out the best. Ask yourself daily, where is there vast opportunity in front of me that I can grasp now? As you experience finding that opportunity and capturing it, you will grow in optimism about your ability to do so continuously.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty soon youre bound to spill it.
Review: I especially love the studies that the author chose to include in this book. It is written in such a reader friendly manner so that even when I am triggered or as pesimistic as ever, I am still wanting to continue to read and get more information. It seems well thought out and written with very good knowledge of the subject so to make it far more likely that the author's perspective is true. I dont want to be permanently pesimistic.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty soon youre bound to spill it.
Review: I especially love the studies that the author chose to include in this book. It is written in such a reader friendly manner so that even when I am triggered or as pesimistic as ever, I am still wanting to continue to read and get more information. It seems well thought out and written with very good knowledge of the subject so to make it far more likely that the author's perspective is true. I dont want to be permanently pesimistic.
Rating: 
Summary: Case Histories are FICTIONAL
Review: The author admit in the acknowledgement that the so-called patient cases are NOT REAL, made up by her. However, if you didn't read the acknowledgement, you would think those are real people and their problems are beautifully explained by the author. In reality, she invent cases to fit her theories. This can mislead readers.
Rating:
Summary: Correct understanding of individual differences
Review: The key to Dr. Vaughan's or anyone else's understanding of optimism and pessimism is not: 'Which is better for human beings?' -- It is "Do optimistic strategies work well for some people, but pessimistic strategies work better for other people?" And indeed, psychological research indicates that for 40-50% of Americans, optimism is adaptive, but also that optimism is an unsuccessful, maladaptive, and counterproductive strategy for at least 33%. For that group of 33% + the strategy that works far better than "don't worry, be happy" optimism is 'constructive-defensive' pessimism. It is precisely because individuals differ so profoundly that 'positive psychology' is too one-sided and too 'one-size-fits-all' to be fully valid, and that is why we need the corrective found in the books on optimism and pessimism edited by Ed Chang.
So think individually about the previous reviewer suggestion: "contra some other reviers, you cannot come to a correct view simply by reading Dr. Vaughan, then by reading persons of an opposite opinion, because x + (-x) = 0. If the people saying (-x) have correctly analyzed the entire body of literature, while x is based on a very selective reading of a subset of research, "balancing" (-x) with x produces error, not balance." It is the compelling reality of individual differences in personality that matters = X works for you, (-X) works for me, Y works for my friend, Z works for your friend. So constructive pessimism fits some of us, but no single strategy fits all of us !!
Rating:
Summary: IN REALITY, THE GLASS IS...WHATEVER YOU PERCEIVE IT TO BE!
Review: The world consists of those who are pessimists(those who continually see the glass as half empty) or optimists (those who continually see the glass as half full.) Through my studies in psychology and years as a counsellor, it has become evident that how one "views the glass" is to a significant degree determined in the early formative years and the positive or negative relationship we had with our parents. Speaking in general terms, those who have been given encouragement and provided with love, security and a positive environment usually have a more optimistic outlook, and higher sense of self-worth and self-esteem, than those who have not had the benefits of such a nurturing relationship. As the author so aptly points out, it is never to late to become master of your own fate and change your outlook on life and how you "view the glass." Easier said than done - you bet! Lifelong habits and perceptions are difficult to change; however, with self-discipline and a commitment to long-term change, it can be mastered. Short of professional counselling, this book provides some valuable insights into the conditions which foster a pessimistic or optimistic attitude and suggests what one can do to change a formed, life-long way of thinking. Vaughn uses her professional expertise and fictional case studies to demonstrate how to boost one's level of self-confidence in order to "see the glass" (and life)in a more positive, optimistic manner.
Rating: 
Summary: An invitation to illusion
Review: This book has three major flaws that make it untrustworthy: (1) Dr. Vaughan has chosen to review only a select subset of the research on attitudes and adjustment. She proves that optimism is a good thing (and that we ought to aim for it) by reviewing only those studies that say that. As several other reviewers of this book have pointed out, the research is much more complex than that. However, contra some other reviers, you cannot come to a correct view simply by reading Dr. Vaughan, then by reading persons of an opposite opinion, because x + (-x) = 0. If the people saying (-x) have correctly analyzed the entire body of literature, while x is based on a very selective reading of a subset of research, "balancing" (-x) with x produces error, not balance. You come to a correct view by seeing what an accurate meta-analysis of the research actually says. It may say (-x). (2) Dr. Vaughan's manner of applying scientific findings to clinical or real-life situations boggles the mind. Dr. Vaughan leaps grandly from studies to "and so we know" this, that, or the other about clinical or real life situations. It just ain't so. In scientific studies, we try to limit carefully the characteristics of our sample and the variables at work. Every semi-competent scientist knows that life is not like that. Hence, we do not extrapolate directly to real life-because real life contains all sorts of variables not included in our study, and people with all sorts of characteristics that we carefully excluded from our sample. To get from science to real life requires careful, ever-widening circles of investigation, in which we add a variable or two, or a trait or two, at a time, carefully extending the scope of our hypothesis outward. Nearly always, this process of widening the circle of investigation results in changing the hypothesis-another reason that extrapolating wildly cannot claim to be "science." (3) Finally, Dr. Vaughan has also forgotten the basic principle that science, by the nature of the case, cannot tell us how we ought to be. It can, at best, tell us how things are and how they work, and inform us of the respective outcomes of different actions. Science does not, and cannot, show that optimism (or pessimism) is "better" than any other attitude. Consider an analogy: Suppose someone produced a study showing (a) that men are happier when women are submissive and deferential than when women assert themselves as equals, and (b) those women who accept that state of affairs have fewer stress-related diseases than those who do not. (Such a study would not be difficult to produce even today, and a few decades ago would have been easy to replicate over and over and over again.) Would we then conclude that "science" had "shown" that male dominance is to be preferred? Of course not. The research on positive illusions raises far more questions than it answers, and to pretend otherwise is simply-well, I guess it's a positive illusion, and a good illustration of why this approach should be regarded warily. Whether one is "Harvard-trained" or a bubba from the boonies, the principles of science remain the same, and Dr. Vaughan's book violates those principles.
Rating:
Summary: WOW! Talk about a great read!
Review: This is one of the best self-help style books I've ever read, presenting a new theory of optimism and chock full of studies to support what the author is saying. It's also an enjoyable quick read that will make you think differently about what you do in your own mind as you go about your day to day life. The author's vignettes are not made up (as the first reviewer says), just disguised so that individual patients are not exposed and identifiable. In any case, the theory is founded in reams of research and review of scientific findings, not her own stories anyway. These are used instead to illustrate what the findings say in a personal and engaging way. Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: An invitation to illusion
Review: Vaughan is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and researcher who can write for the public. In my coaching practice, I sometimes have to grapple with another person's innate and deeply-grounded pessimism and this book gave me ammunition. I do believe that optimism can be learned and in my efforts to extend my own and other people's optimism in the face of some bad-to-worse onslaughts from life, this book has been of immeasurable help. From the amygdala to dream analysis, Vaughan makes it all almost deceptively simple. I doubt that many can "do it" as well as she can, but learning about changing one's level of optimism -- in fact just knowing that we can -- is a great first step! This book gave me real information I can put into practice.
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