A Great Foundation for Understanding Happiness

books:


	• The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom Jonathan Haidt Basic Books, 2006 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 67 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A very good hypothesis

Jonathan Haidt is one of several front-line researchers in the field of Positive Psychology. This book, The Happiness Hypothesis, is a beautifully written, erudite series of lessons about how current research verifies or challenges a host of ancient teachings about happiness ranging from ancient Egypt,Greece, and China and crossing over to Hebrew and New Testament Bible teachings and 20th century psychology. Suitable for lay readers as well as psychology majors both undergraduate and graduate. The goals of this book are very ambitious but skillfully achieved at almost every turn. While the final chapter was somewhat anticlimactic, in my view, the time spent studying the book overall was well worth it. Highly recommended.

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Musings of a college boy

I purchased this book on the recommendation of David Brooks, the New York Times columnist. It was on the list of books he recommended in his column about how "we" need to change how we think (and act) in this world. (Which I agree with wholeheartedly.)
In any case I purchased this and another of his recommendations, Michael Gazziniga's The Ethical Brain. After perusing the Gazziniga book I decided to start with the Haidt. I regretted his choice of the title, after all, what can be more fleeting than "happiness"?
I persevered through to the end. It had a few bright moments, no, instants; but it was basically the musings of a college boy. It seem so full of ordinary, everyday information and nothing worth note. It's a mystery to me why anyone would recommend it.
I am giving it three stars after reading the review from 'a reader in front of the front range'. I figured if he gave it three stars, I should be as generous - otherwise, I was tempted to assign only two.

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A Great Foundation for Understanding Happiness

Jonathan Haidt has done a great job of nailing the topic. This is the best work I have found for understanding the elusive state labeled happiness. His discussion of negativity bias is particularly well done. Copies given to friends result in responses ranging from 'very helpful' to 'best book I've read'. Coverage of taboos may be a turn-off to some, but to date no complaints. Haidt is generous in sharing his sources. He also shows the appreciation and pride of a great teacher in his descriptions of research by his students. I highly recommend both the book and the CD.

R. Scott Clark, Ed.D.

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The Psychology of Human Happiness

This book explores many topics relating to happiness, from the silly game of conspicuous consumption and materialism, to the reason belonging to a social group such as a religion, may or may not make you happy. Through various psychological studies of the importance of the mother's (and father's) love of a newborn child to the value of setbacks and problems in a child's life in the late teens to early twenties, the author explores what seems to bind us and make us happy or in many cases, not happy.

There is information about the three realistic ways to fight depression, a lot of good information about the different types of love and then marriage, how we react to and find value (even atheists) in acts of kindness and giving, and how important it is to have good relationships with those around us.

All of the ideas are backed up by the ancient philosophers and current studies in psychology. I feel that he should expand many of the themes in the book and give us more and more. It's excellent, sometimes eye-opening information that can help us all to have better lives.

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So that explains it!

This book was referred to in a newspaper article on current brain research, which is of interest to me, so I bought it in spite of the somewhat gimmicky title. I'm so glad I did. It explains in layman's terms why the people with whom we disagree can't help being so darn stubborn! It also exposed my lovingly-cherished illusions about my own open-mindedness. If we all understood what the author explains so clearly, perhaps we could overcome some of our divisions and biases. And that just might save civilization.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

In his widely praised book, award-winning psychologist Jonathan Haidt examines the world?s philosophical wisdom through the lens of psychological science, showing how a deeper understanding of enduring maxims-like Do unto others as you would have others do unto you, or What doesn?t kill you makes you stronger-can enrich and even transform our lives.

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