E-Book Overview
All human beings have spontaneous needs for happiness, self-understanding, and love. In Feeling Good: The Science of Well Being, psychiatrist Robert Cloninger describes a way to coherent living that satisfies these strong basic needs through growth in the uniquely human gift of self-awareness. The scientific findings that led Dr. Cloninger to expand his own views in a stepwise manner during 30 years of research and clinical experience are clearly presented so that readers can consider the validity of his viewpoint for themselves. The principles of well-being are based on a non-reductive scientific paradigm that integrates findings from all the biomedical and psychosocial sciences. Reliable methods are described for measuring human thought and social relationships at each step along the path of self-aware consciousness. Practical mental exercises for stimulating the growth of self-awareness are also provided. The methods are supported by data from brain imaging, genetics of personality, and longitudinal biopsychosocial studies. Feeling Good: The Science of Well-Being will be of value to anyone involved in the sciences of the mind or the treatment of mental disorders. It will also interest theologians, philosophers, social scientists, and lay readers because it provides contemporary scientific concepts and language for addressing the perennial human questions about being, knowledge, and conduct.
E-Book Content
Feeling Good
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Feeling Good The Science of Well-Being
C. ROBERT CLONINGER
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
2004
OX-FORD Oxford New York Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Sao Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto
Copyright © 2004 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York, 10016 http://www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cloninger, C. Robert. Feeling good: the science of well-being / C. Robert Cloninger. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-19-505137-8 1. Health. 2. Psychiatry. 3. Psychophysiology. 4. Mind and body. 5. Consciousness. 6. Personality. 7. Philosophy of mind. 8. Happiness. 9. Love. I. Title. RA776.C625 2004 613—dc22 2003190053
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
PREFACE
To be truly happy people must learn to live in radically new ways. Well-being only arises when a person learns how to let go of struggles, to work in the service of others, and to grow in awareness. Prior approaches to feeling good have small or brief benefits because they separate the biological, psychological, social, and spiritual processes of living that must be in harmony for a happy life. The introduction of modern drugs and psychotherapy techniques has not resulted in more people who are very happy with their lives than in the past. Psychologists know much about the psychosocial skills of people who are happy but know little about their biology or spirituality. Psychiatrists know much about the biomedical characteristics of people who are unhappy, but not those who are happy. No one has integrated the psychosocial and biomedical knowledge that is available about wellbeing in a coherent developmental perspective. Fortunately, psychosocial and biomedical approaches to well-being can be fully integrated, as is done in this book for th