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Summary: This book is a must read!
Review: Dr, Seligman's books are the best works I have ever read on this subject. Most of the books you read on this subject matter. Are usually filled with ancient philosophy or the author's own personal feelings on the subject. This book is based in clinical research. Dr Seligman has turned the World of Psychology inside out and wipes away long held beliefs. Unless your a grad student, the writing will challenge your vocabulary at times. I found myself with a dictionary a number of times. I am looking forward to Dr, Seligmans next book.
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Summary: Seligman does his research
Review: Dr. Seligman gives us the criteria for happiness in this informative book. Authentic Happiness is on par with my favorite book on the planet, Optimal Thinking: How to Be Your Best Self by Dr. Glickman which gives the simple resource to make the most of any situation and life.
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Summary: Authentic happy -- and negative -- feelings
Review: Dr. Seligman's new book deserves its 5-star rating and best-seller status, for helpfulness in the wonderful tradition of the Handbook of Humanistic Psychology !! The "Authentic Happiness" book's web site for testing one's 'signature strengths' is also a real plus. The only leftover question is: What about the authenticity of negative feelings? Can anxiety, worry, and caution be authentic and even constructive parts of human experience too, as some psychologists in the book Optimism and Pessimism report. It seems that positive, humanistic psychology is helpful toward becoming authentically happy and self-actualized, as long as human negativity is also seen in its proper psychological perspective.
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Summary: Nice Overview of Positive Psychology
Review: Gotta give it to Seligman: he tries hard. Positive Psychology is the science of using the human psyche in attaining greater levels of overall satisfaction with life.
Why I like this book: 1) Well developed, 2) Well Referenced, 3) Interesting studies cited.
Why I dislike this book: 1) It negates to focus on the eastern aspect of psychology -- a psychology that blows positive psychology into the shallow end of the pool. 2) The diagnostics are tedious and in my opinion overly abundant. 3) Often times Seligman can just cut the the point, but he doesn't.
Why positive psychology might be for you? It is an object-oriented approach to increasing life satisfaction with real and pertinent examples. In other words, it gives you the box and instructions.
Why positive psychology might not be for you? Its difference to the east's view is the difference between getting your car's engine tuned as opposed to upgrading the engine all together.
Seligman is cutting edge in his field, pretty much, except for the one book he references concerning the positive psychology of buddhism; which I should probably pick up.
This book is filled with a lot of diagnostics, and those are pretty tedious and annoying. On the up side, there apparently is a website where you can take the inventories (diagnostics) and have them automatically scored.
If you want the theory of positive psychology, check out some website. If you want psychological evaluations, nice examples, studies, and the theory, buy this book.
This book is excellent for those begining their journey. It is written for any relatively educated person and above.
Book for those interested in the joining of Eastern and Western Psychology: "The Art of Happiness" by Howard Cutler and His Holiness the Dalai Lama
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Summary: Surprisingly Superficial...
Review: Having read several of Seligman's other books, I was quite surprised by just how unsubstantial this book is. Largely ancedotal in nature, it provides little in the way of useful information on just how to make the changes necessary to achieve happiness. The chapter on raising children is downright silly- since Seligman apparently has no scholarly foundation on this topic, he fills the chapter with anecdotes about his own experiences in dealing with his four kids. What's particularly funny about this is that at the very end of the book he thanks his SIX children - what happened to the other two, or the first wife for that matter. One might argue it's personal and therefore not relevant, but since he insists on dragging his second family into this book so much, why not talk about the first?
Finally, the whole concept of achieving authentic happiness is probably a lot more meaningful to someone who spends New Year's eve in the Yucatan on someone else's dime, or who contemplates the meaning of it all sitting poolside in the Bahamas. The final pages on his newfound concept of God read like some silly science fiction short story. This book is a serious misstep from someone who needs to get a foot back in the real world.
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Summary: You want to be happy?
Review: Here are the books I would recommend you read in your quest for happiness: What Happy People Know, Happiness Is Free, The Little Guide To Happiness, and this book, Authentic Happiness. I've read alot of book on happiness. I'm almost an expert myself now on the subject. Plus, I'm pretty darn happy. So, take my advice. Any one of these are excellent choices.
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Summary: Another great book by Dr. Seligman
Review: I have always enjoyed Dr. Seligmans work and am a big fan of Learned Optimism which probably should be read before this one or at least in addition to it.People are confused and upset today for a lot of different reasons. Are you really happy. Read Dr. Seligmans book and find out what you can do about it. Great work Dr. Seligman.
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Summary: Seligman's Online Site Beats the Book
Review: I heard about this book on NPR a few months ago and checked out the companion website (authentichappiness.org) before buying the book. The site has 17 questionnaires on happiness, optimism, relationships, emotion, and Seligman's trademark Values in Action Signature Strengths. You can take these tests days or weeks apart and track your progress. It's an excellent site and does the job of prompting you to buy the book. The book just isn't as strong as the site. As noted it other reviews it's part autobiography, part research report and part self-help book. You'll get formulas like H = S + C + V (H is enduring level of happiness, S is your set range, C is the circumstances of your life, v is voluntary variables) and lots of self-congratulatory stories about Seligman's friends, colleagues, wife and kids. Not that any of that's bad, but I have to wonder if his editor didn't ask him "Are you sure you want to include this?" Single greatest reminder of something I knew but had forgotten: "You can't change your past, but you can change your perception of it."
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Summary: "Some great theories and self-tests"
Review: I saw the book and the CD in the library and opted for the CD. Good choice. Some time ago I started reading "Learned Optimism", also by Seligman. I never finished reading it, even though it was an excellent book. Authentic Happiness adresses the things in our lives that produce the most happiness as well as those things that bring us down. One of the biggest insights for me, even though I've heard it and read it many times: Don't work on or worry about your weaknesses, rather, increase your strengths! This is a difficult assignment for a perfectionist. Are you a "glass is half-full", or "half-empty" person? Which ever you are, can you change? Seligman brought a lot of deep, soul-searching questions into play. He also offers a web-site including self-tests, to find out where you stand in the happiness line of life. I don't know whether I'd ever read this book, however, I would like to listen to the audio program again. Positive stuff!
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Summary: Self-important Author Repackaging Some Good Ideas
Review: I simply cannot understand most of the other reviewers here in their adoration of this book. Primarily, the book draws on insights already expressed by others without giving appropriate credit. One example is John F. Kennedy, who defined happiness as "full use of your powers along the lines of excellence" (compare this to Seligman's defintion: "successfully using your signature strengths to obtain...gratification.)" Another example is Norman Vincent Peale who defined optimism as a "habit of mind" (compare this to Seligman's point that we can achieve optimism by routinely engaging in the "disputing of pessimistic thoughts.") Can you say Positive Thinking? Conciously or unconciously, Seligman has repackaged these thoughts and labeled the package "Positive Psychology." The warming over of these old concepts, in itself, would not be a bad thing because the borrowed concepts have much validity. What IS bad, however, is the way Seligman padded and diluted these nuggets with a lot of personal anecdotes, self congratulation, questionnaires, and psuedo science. And he constantly uses pure trivia as his source for second guessing other great thinkers on the weightiest of subjects. For example, he implies that the enitire book was hatched as the result of an "epiphany" he experienced when his 5 year old daughter called him a grouch. Similarly, all of his self-assured recommendations on child rearing, contained in a long chapter that seems tacked on to the book, are based on the experience of raising his own kids. Seligman apparently is on his second family (his 6 kids include toddlers and near-middle-agers.) Why should I take his advice on child rearing when he admits that, until he bribed her with the offer of a Barbie Doll, he couldn't stop his youngest from hiding, day after day, where her family could not find her? He actually says we should only bribe kids this way "once or twice in a lifetime." Finally, Seligman unlocks the mystery of God for us by engaging in his typical practice of finding answers not in the words of Aristotle, Plato, or Freud but by seeking answers in less less likely places. He goes instead to the world of sci-fi, telling us that his theory on the identity of God was inspired by an Isaac Asimov short story. He unravels this mystery for us by quoting a poolside conversation during which, as he describes it, he dazzled a brilliant writer, Bob Wright, with his profound insight on the Diety. What's the insight? "God comes at the end" but wasn't here in the beginning! If you want to get anything useful out of this book, you have to work hard to separate the meaningful stuff from the self-important fluff. I suggest you instead seek out the thoughts of people like Kennedy and Peale, who were not only better thinkers, but a heck of a lot less arrogant.
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