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Book cover of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
Clinical Psychology, Personal Growth

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
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Overview

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's famous investigations of "optimal experience" have revealed that what makes an experience genuinely satisfying is a state of consciousness called flow. During flow, people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and a total involvement with life. In this new edition of his groundbreaking classic work, Csikszentmihalyi demonstrates the ways this positive state can be controlled, not just left to chance. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience teaches how, by ordering the information that enters our consciousness, we can discover true happiness and greatly improve the quality of our lives.

The author tells how inner satisfaction can be achieved through the implemtation of FLOW--the focused state of mind that amounts to total absorption in an activity so that nothing else seems to matter. 2 cassettes.

Synopsis

It happens when an artist loses himself entirely in his work, or when basketball player enters that zone where it seems everything she throws up will drop in. This is Flow the freedom of total absorption in an activity, the almost euphoric state of concentration and involvement.

Esteemed psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi reveals why flow i one of the most rewarding states of being life has to offer. And he demonstrates how listeners can achieve this state at will. The widely acclaimed Flow has already helped thousands of people turn their everyday experiences into opportunities for joy and fulfillment. New listeners will learn to redirect energy, overcome anxiety, and harmonize all of life's elements.

Howard Gardner

Documents a set of scientific discoveries about human nature that actually illuminates the life experiences of all persons.

About the Author, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is professor and former chairman of the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago.

His previous books include Flow and The Evolving Self. Flow was shown on the 1993 NBC Super Bowl broadcast as the book that inspired Jimmy Johnson, then coach of the Dallas Cowboys. It was also a selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club and the Quality Paperback Book Club.

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Editorials

Howard Gardner

Documents a set of scientific discoveries about human nature that actually illuminates the life experiences of all persons.

Newsweek

It rethinks what motivates people.

Library Journal

Aristotle observed 2300 years ago that more than anything men and women seek happiness. Csikszentmihalyi (psychology, Univ. of Chicago) has for 25 years made similar observations regarding ``flow,'' a field of behavioral science examining connections between satisfaction and daily activities. A flow state ensues when one is engaged in self-controlled, goal-related, meaningful actions. Data regarding flow were collected on thousands of individuals, from mountain climbers to chess players. This thoroughly researched study is an intriguing look at the age-old problem of the pursuit of happiness and how, through conscious effort, we may more easily attain it. Recommended for general readers.-- Terry McMaster, Utica Coll. of Syracuse Univ. Lib., N.Y .

Book Details

Published
July 1, 2008
Publisher
HarperCollins Publishers
Pages
336
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780061339202

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