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 enlarge | Author: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy Used: $1.00
You Save: $13.00 (93%)
New (16) Used (102) Collectible (8) from $1.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  108 reviews
Sales Rank: 1984
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.8
ISBN: 0060920432
Dewey Decimal Number: 155.2
EAN: 9780060920432
ASIN: 0060920432
Publication Date: March 13, 1991
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: This book has writing and/or highlighting - in some cases a lot, sometimes just a few pages* If you can deal with the writing/markings, this is a great deal! * If this does not have writing and highlighting, it is probably a former library book * We carefully inspected this * Great customer service * Satisfaction Guaranteed!
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| Customer Reviews:
 Raj Bendre May 13, 2007
Though I recently bought a 1990 edition of this book it still is quite relevant to this day. A well researched book which really makes one aware about how one can enhance the quality of one's own life. A must read for all those who are in purusit of happiness and beyond. I have been through what Mihaly describes as the state of 'FLOW' many times before. In fact at the time I was reading 'FLOW' and even at this very moment as I am writing these lines of this review I am experiencing 'FLOW' and the book apart from resonating that feeling has provided me with the awareness of ways of sustaining this state longer and has taught me how to bring this state about more often and perhaps in due course at will.
PERFECT BOOK TO HELP YOU GET BACK ON TRACK April 20, 2007
1 out of 17 found this review helpful
If it weren't for this book, I might not have written one of my own! Pamela D. Blair, Author The Next Fifty Years: A Guide for Women at Mid-Life And Beyond
Great, grounded book February 23, 2007
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
This book covers a lot of territory and does it in a very grounded manner. The interface of pyschology and spirituality is fascinating and this book brings us right to the heart of that junction where we can access much higher principles of living through a practical, real world application of research and experience. Using a significant body of research, Csikszentmihalyi delves into the question of why are we here and what is our purpose. He gets there by studying optimal experience. What is happiness? How can we sustain it given the randomness of life? He supports the rather convenient conclusion that our purpose is what we decide it will be by illustrating the necessity of ordering our consciousness through focused activiities. Actions that lead to something, somewhere. He beautifully conveys the idea that our goals in life, while deemed valuable by either ourselves or our conditioning, are not apt to be valuable if not for the committment of our actions over time. That it is really this focus that brings value to any activity and goal. Further, if we want to extend meaning to our entire life, we need to find a way to tie all of our focused activity into a theme. Thus our life efforts can provide both meaningful experience and valuable results. He offers guidance as to how to tie our decisions about our life-theme into a greater whole, for example, how traumatic experience can provide the opportunity for transcendence by helping others avoid similar trauma. The last chapter, which offers the big picture perspective of the material, was particularly uplifting and helpful as I travel a journey of 'figuring out what I want to be when I grow up'.
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience January 11, 2007
1 out of 47 found this review helpful
Received the book promptly, and it was in excellent condition.
 Psychology or Philosophy ? November 24, 2006
11 out of 15 found this review helpful
This is a curious but engaging book. Despite the use of the word 'psychology' on the cover, I would rate it 1/3 psychology, 2/3 philosophy, anthropology, and sociology. The author's psychological contribution is based on a series of self-reporting tests where subjects were beeped at random moments and asked to record their moods and thoughts. Lord knows what happened if the beep came during a sensitive business meeting or while making love, the author does not say. He should have. Little also is made of the tendency of anyone to respond in accordance with what they feel will be expected of them or will be well received. This factor and how it was treated should have been debated. When all that is said and done however, there is an honest and provocative account of what makes for the happiest experiences of (mostly) (western, industrialised, modern) people. You could also reframe it as an account of how these same (mostly) (western, modern, indistrialised) people arrive at the state of concentrated and unified attention which throughout the ages has been recognised as the path to paradise. The author gives in fact fair attention to the Oriental paths to the same result, although he stops short of recognising that the Oriental formulation of the result is meaningful. The author's knowledge of the philosophical tradition is deep, and his references to it are always refreshing. A thoroughly interesting read, to be balanced with any modern work on neuro-psychiatry for a satisfying synthesis.
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