Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being [Hardcover]

This is not a great book and it certainly has its flaws. However, it is a fairly well written book by Martin Seligman, one of the founders of Positive Psychology, and provides a passionate argument for his latest thinking on well being. He has changed his views over the last decade and he explains how and why in this book. The topic is important and if Seligman is right, he has made a major contribution to human flourishing with his work.

I read Barbara Ehrenrich's Bright-Sided: How Positive Thinking Is Undermining America a while back and I admit that it caused me to doubt to some degree Seligman's credibility. Shame on me and this book showed me how wrong I was to let her influence me in that regard.

If you are looking for a step-by-step recipe for flourishing, a traditional type of self-help book, you will not find it here. This book is much more theoretical and it spends a lot of time on the evidence and research for Seligman's views on well being. Having said that, you certainly can glean what it takes to flourish from reading it. I just want to make clear this book is mostly about theory and evidence and not about practical steps individuals can take on their own.

My biggest complaint about the book is that it spends too much time detailing specific projects the author is currently working on or has worked on in the past. He spends two full chapters on his work with the army. He does that to support his argument and to some degree I think to establish his credibility. While it is somewhat interesting, it's just too much.

If you are interested in a theory of human flourishing then I think this book would be a valuable addition to your library. I definitely recommend it.

Dr. Seligman starts off reviewing why he has moved on from authentic happiness to well-being. While not giving up on authentic happiness, he argues that while happiness is an important concept, the notion of well-being involves a number of factors in addition to happiness.
The book is comprehensive in nature, covering everything from happiness to sex in space to a denial that he ever helped the U.S. military develop torture techniques. That comprehensiveness, is however, the book's weakness as well as its strength. The book does start with ways to achieve well-being at a personal level, including some exercises to do so. Just as it began to get interesting on that topic, the author switches to introducing well-being into the education system and just as that becomes interesting he switches to well-being in the military and so on. He also has a tendency to go off on tangents throughout the book, further diminishing the book's focus. Because of this it was hard to discern the target audience of the book, with some parts being suitable to the lay-person while others were best suited to psychologists or similar professionals.
Having said all that, I did enjoy the book and found the occasional gem of wisdom. However as stated in a previous critique, this is not a self-help book and those wishing to learn how to flourish will be disappointed. I would recommend his prior book Authentic Happiness for those wanting to learn self-improvement. For those wanting an overview of positive psychology and the various settings it could be used in, the book does provide a basic overall introduction to the subject area. However it does not contain much information that would be useful to the lay-person or to clinicians and their clients.

I have read most of Martin Seligman's books, and let me say up front I'm grateful for his work as founder of the positive psychology movement. There is a lot of data that a pessimistic take on events does not make for either physical health or general wellbeing--and these studies are so consistent it is hard to imagine they're all wrong. What if you tend to look a bit too much at the dark side of events? Can you change? The idea is not to become Pollyanna-to-the-point-of-stupidity, of course, but only to cultivate a somewhat sunnier outlook. Well, it turns out you can change, at least to an extent, and Dr. Seligman has pioneered techniques to increase optimism. I've personally found some of the methods he recommends helpful. I particularly like the "three blessings" exercise in which each day one picks out three things that have gone well. This helps shift the mind to a focus on what is good in everyday life. The idea of making a point of using "signature strengths" to cope on a daily basis with life's challenges is also useful. (A quiz to help you identify your strengths is included in this book.) I like the fact that positive psychology is based on empirical studies rather than wishful thinking, and there is data to show its techniques work.

This is not a self-help book, however, but more of an account of Dr. Seligman's reconsideration of the ultimate goal of positive psychology. Rather than mere mood enhancement, he sees a different and broader aim--flourishing, which includes having good relationships with others and a generally meaningful life. There is an interesting discussion here of what makes for happiness in the truest sense. Also the book contains a detailed account of Dr. Seligman's pro bono work with the U.S. Army, fostering resilience. (I was moved by his revealing the personal motives--he is the grandson of immigrants lucky to escape the Holocaust--that led him to do this work.) There is abundant material on using positive psychology in corporate or school settings. All to my mind quite fascinating.

So, to sum up, there's a lot here about the expanded theory and applying positive psychology in organizations. And it is all interesting and clearly written enough that I read this book eagerly in a couple of sittings. Still, people looking for an introduction to the field of positive psychology and in particular those who want to use its findings to become happier, might prefer Dr, Seligman's earlier book AUTHENTIC HAPPINESS. (FLOURISH does describe many of the same techniques mentioned in AUTHENTIC HAPPINESS but it has a broader focus.)

If when I read a psychology book I take away one technique for fostering better relationships--something I didn't know before--I'm thrilled. The information here on how to help people celebrate their wins in life and increase their joy was eye-opening. You say "Of course" when you read this, and then thinking about it, you realize you've learned something new and useful. This is on many levels a great book.

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