Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi





Format: Paperback, 336pp.
ISBN: 9780061339202
Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Pub. Date: New Edition July 1, 2008

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Description and Reviews
From The Publisher:

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 is 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.

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.


About the Author

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.


Table of Contents

Preface     xi Happiness Revisited     1 Introduction     1 Overview     5 The Roots of Discontent     8 The Shields of Culture     10 Reclaiming Experience     16 Paths of Liberation     20 The Anatomy of Consciousness     23 The Limits of Consciousness     28 Attention as Psychic Energy     30 Enter the Self     33 Disorder in Consciousness: Psychic Entropy     36 Order in Consciousness: Flow     39 Complexity and the Growth of the Self     41 Enjoyment and the Quality of Life     43 Pleasure and Enjoyment     45 The Elements of Enjoyment     48 The Autotelic Experience     67 The Conditions of Flow     71 Flow Activities     72 Flow and Culture     77 The Autotelic Personality     83 The People of Flow     90 The Body in Flow     94 Higher, Faster, Stronger     96 The Joys of Movement     99 Sex as Flow     100 The Ultimate Control: Yoga and the Martial Arts     103 Flow through theSenses: The Joys of Seeing     106 The Flow of Music     108 The Joys of Tasting     113 The Flow of Thought     117 The Mother of Science     120 The Rules of the Games of the Mind     124 The Play of Words     128 Befriending Clio     132 The Delights of Science     134 Loving Wisdom     138 Amateurs and Professionals     139 The Challenge of Lifelong Learning     141 Work As Flow     143 Autotelic Workers     144 Autotelic Jobs     152 The Paradox of Work     157 The Waste of Free Time     162 Enjoying Solitude and Other People     164 The Conflict between Being Alone and Being with Others     165 The Pain of Loneliness     168 Taming Solitude     173 Flow and the Family     175 Enjoying Friends     185 The Wider Community     190 Cheating Chaos     192 Tragedies Transformed     193 Coping with Stress     198 The Power of Dissipative Structures     201 The Autotelic Self: A Summary     208 The Making of Meaning     214 What Meaning Means     215 Cultivating Purpose     218 Forging Resolve     223 Recovering Harmony     227 The Unification of Meaning in Life Themes     230 Notes     241 References     281

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