Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment

Over a decade ago, Martin Seligman charted a new approach to living with "flexible optimism." Now, in his most stimulating and persuasive book to date, the bestselling author of "Learned Optimism" introduces the revolutionary, scientifically based idea of "Positive Psychology." Positive Psychology focuses on strengths rather than weaknesses, asserting that happiness is not the result of good genes or luck. Seligman teaches readers that happiness can be cultivated by identifying and using many of the strengths and traits that they already possess -- including kindness, originality, humor, optimism, and generosity. By frequently calling upon their "signature strengths" in all the crucial realms of life, readers will not only develop natural buffers against misfortune and the experience of negative emotion, they will move their lives up to a new, more positive plane.

Drawing on groundbreaking psychological research, Seligman shows how Positive Psychology is shifting the profession's paradigm away from its narrow-minded focus on pathology, victimology, and mental illness to positive emotion, virtue and strength, and positive institutions. Our signature strengths can be nurtured throughout our lives, with benefits to our health, relationships, and careers.

Seligman provides the Signature Strengths Survey along with a variety of brief tests that can be used to measure how much positive emotion readers experience, in order to help determine what their highest strengths are. The life-changing lesson of Authentic Happiness is that by identifying the very best in ourselves, we can improve the world around us and achieve new and sustainable levels of authentic contentment, gratification, and meaning.

Caroline Myss Author of andlt;Iandgt;Sacred Contractsandlt;/Iandgt; andlt;Iandgt;Authentic Happiness andlt;/Iandgt;is delightful and richly insightful. Martin Seligman has written a very practical book, guiding readers to make positive choices in life.

Steven Pinker Author of andlt;Iandgt;The Language Instinctandlt;/Iandgt; A highly insightful scientific and personal reflection on the nature of happiness, from one of the most creative and influential psychologists of our time.

andlt;Iandgt;Elleandlt;/Iandgt; A bold new plan for taking control of your life and finding lasting happiness.

Argues that happiness can be a learned and cultivated behavior, explaining how every person possesses at least five of twenty-four profiled strengths that can be built on in order to improve life.

A national bestseller, andlt;Iandgt;Authentic Happinessandlt;/Iandgt; launched the revolutionary new science of Positive Psychologyand#8212;and sparked a coast-to-coast debate on the nature of real happiness.andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;According to esteemed psychologist and bestselling author Martin Seligman, happiness is not the result of good genes or luck. Real, lasting happiness comes from focusing on oneand#8217;s personal strengths rather than weaknessesand#8212;and working with them to improve all aspects of oneand#8217;s life. Using practical exercises, brief tests, and a dynamic website program, Seligman shows readers how to identify their highest virtues and use them in ways they havenand#8217;t yet considered. Accessible and proven, andlt;Iandgt;Authentic Happinessandlt;/Iandgt; is the most powerful work of popular psychology in years.

andlt;Bandgt;Martin E.P. Seligman, Ph.D.andlt;/Bandgt;, the Robert A. Fox Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, works on positive psychology, learned helplessness, depression, ethnopolitical conflict, and optimism. Dr. Seligman's work has been supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Science Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation. He is the director of the Positive Psychology Network and scientific director of Foresight, Inc., a testing company that predicts success in various walks of life.andlt;BRandgt;andnbsp;andnbsp;andnbsp;andnbsp; He was for fourteen years the Director of the Clinical Training Program of the University of Pennsylvania and was named a "Distinguished Practitioner" by the National Academies of Practice. In 1995, he received the Pennsylvania Psychological Association's award for "Distinguished Contributions to Science and Practice."

andlt;BRandgt;andlt;Bandgt;Contentsandlt;/Bandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;Prefaceandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;Bandgt;Part I: Positive Emotionandlt;/Bandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;1. Positive Feeling and Positive Characterandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;2. How Psychology Lost Its Way and I Found Mineandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;3. Why Bother to Be Happy?andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;4. Can You Make Yourself Lastingly Happier?andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;5. Satisfaction about the Pastandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;6. Optimism about the Futureandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;7. Happiness in the Presentandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;Bandgt;Part II: Strength and Virtueandlt;/Bandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;8. Renewing Strength and Virtueandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;9. Your Signature Strengthsandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;Bandgt;Part III: In the Mansions of Lifeandlt;/Bandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;10. Work and Personal Satisfactionandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;11. Loveandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;12. Raising Childrenandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;13. Reprise and Summaryandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;14. Meaning and Purposeandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;Iandgt;Appendix: Terminology and Theoryandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;Acknowledgmentsandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;Endnotesandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;Indexandlt;/Iandgt;