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A national bestseller,Authentic Happinesslaunched the revolutionary new science of Positive Psychology—and sparked a coast-to-coast debate on the nature of real happiness. According to esteemed psychologist and bestselling author Martin Seligman, happiness is not the result of good genes or luck. Real, lasting happiness comes from focusing on one’s personal strengths rather than weaknesses—and working with them to improve all aspects of one’s life. Using practical exercises, brief tests, and a dynamic website program, Seligman shows readers how to identify their highest virtues and use them in ways they haven’t yet considered. Accessible and proven,Authentic Happinessis the most powerful work of popular psychology in years.
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Other Books by Martin E.P. Seligman Helplessness Learned Optimism What You Can Change and What You Can’t The Optimistic Child
THE FREE PRESS
A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020 Copyright © 2002 by Martin Seligman All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. THE FREE PRESS and colophon are trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Designed by Karolina Harris Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Seligman, Martin E. P. Authentic happiness : using the new positive psychology to realize your potential for lasting fulfillment/ Martin E. P. Seligman. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Happiness. 2. Optimism. 3. Conduct of life. I. Title. BF575.H27 S45 2002 158—dc21 2002069288 ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-4788-7 ISBN-10: 0-7432-4788-4 Visit us on the World Wide Web: http://www.SimonSays.com
This book is dedicated to my wife, Mandy McCarthy Seligman, whose love has made the second half of my life happy and gratifying beyond my highest hopes.
TRANSCENDING Escher got it right. Men step down and yet rise up, the hand is drawn by the hand it draws, and a woman is poised on her very own shoulders. Without you and me this universe is simple, run with the regularity of a prison. Galaxies spin along stipulated arcs, stars collapse at the specified hour, crows u-turn south and monkeys rut on schedule. But we, whom the cosmos shaped for a billion years to fit this place, we know it failed. For we can reshape, reach an arm through the bars and, Escher-like, pull ourselves out. And while whales feeding on mackerel are confined forever in the sea, we climb the waves, look down from clouds. —From Look Down from Clouds (Marvin Levine, 1997)
Contents
Preface
Part 1: Positive Emotion 1. Positive Feeling and Positive Character 2. How Psychology Lost Its Way and I Found Mine 3. Why Bother to Be Happy? 4. Can You Make Yourself Lastingly Happier? 5. Satisfaction about the Past 6. Optimism about the Future 7. Happiness in the Present
Part II: Strength and Virtue 8. Renewing Strength and Virtue 9. Your Signature Strengths
Part III: In the Mansions of Life 10. Work and Personal Satisfaction 11. Love 12. Raising Children 13. Reprise and Summary 14. Meaning and Purpose Appendix: Terminology and Theory Acknowledgments
Endnotes
Preface
FOR the last half century psychology has been consumed with a single topic only—mental illness—and has done fairly well with it. Psychologists can now measure such once-fuzzy concepts as depression, schizophrenia, and alcoholism with considerable precision. We now know a good deal about how these troubles develop across the life span, and about their genetics, their biochemistry, and their psychological causes. Best of all we have learned how to relieve these disorders. By my last count, fourteen out of the several dozen major mental illnesses could be effectively treated (and two of them cured) with medication and specific forms of psychotherapy. But this progr