Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being

It took me 2 years to finish this book. I'm glad it is finally over, it was really hard for me to get through the book. The book contains so much stories of the good things the author did with the impressive people that he worked with that it was often hard to get the point he is trying to get across. Or actually, many times it felt the author was trying really really hard to 'sell' his ideas, focusing much more on selling than on the ideas.

The book consists of two part, (1) a new positive psychology, and (2) the ways to flourish.

The book starts out pretty good. The first chapter introduces the well-being theory. According to the well-being theory, well-being can be measures with five measurable elements: (1) positive emotion, (2) engagement, (3) relationships, (4) meaning, and (5) achievement. These five form the acronym PERMA. In the first chapter, each of these elements in explained. The second chapter continues pretty good and explains several exercises that you can do to improve your well-being. Most of them are simple exercises, they do not require anything except for a bit of time and focus.

If the book finished there, it would have been a pretty good small little book. It didn't. Chapter 3 talks about drug use and how positive psychology could help there. Chapter 4 talks about a masters program of applied positive psychology, and chapter 5 talks about applying positive psychology at a school . To me, these chapters brought very little content and just try to convince the reader of the benefits of the ideas of positive psychology.

Part two is called "the ways to flourish." I'm not sure why. Basically it continues like the previous three chapters. First a chapter talking about the idea of grit which was explore by Angela Duckworth. After this, two chapters on applying positive psychology in the US army. An additional chapter on the impact of positive psychology on health and then a final chapter on the idea of measuring well-being instead of GDP for the growth in a country. It then has an appendix which covers the signature strengths test, one of the exercises in positive psychology.

I found Flourish really hard to get through. The start was promising but then it just went on and on with stories about how good positive psychology is and how good the author is (a lot of the book is about the author). I didn't feel I was learning a lot from it and it was all so wordy that I regularly had to stop, go back, as my mind seemed to have gone asleep while reading. I wouldn't recommend reading the book, but if you do, I'd recommend to just read the first two chapters.

Seligman's contribution to positive psychology and psychology in general is well known and well documented. No need to repeat it here.
This audiobook, narrated by him, displays a few nagging quirks, however, that have irked me about his work for years.
First and foremost, his notion of diet and exercise are antiquated (straight from the 50's) and egregiously incorrect yet he continues to promulgate them. He concludes, wrongly, that dieting doesn't work and is one of the things you cannot change (as per the title of one of his books). This is so flat out wrong as to be stupid. Yet it's in every book of his that I've read. He has blind spots.

Here's another: he spent a year teaching in an elite private school in the Australian town of Geelong yet persistently mispronounces the town on the audiobook (It's pronounced "ja-long", not "gee-long"). You couldn't be there for 8 minutes without somebody correcting you (I write from Australia). To get that so conspicuously and persistently wrong suggests is an odd, wilful exclusion of reality which streaks Seligman's books.

Yet another: he dismisses the criticism levelled at him by Barbara Ehrenreich in her book, Bright Sided, which I've read. I think they're simply talking past each other and that's my point. Seligman is tendentious. He excels at promoting his research and recruiting support for his views while simultaneously ignoring criticism. That's hardly the stuff of good science. Ehrenreich, a scientist herself, makes some excellent points (want proof? read the reviews on Amazon) and Seligman refutation of her is, more or less, solid. But it's always very clear that Seligman has a point to make and a barrow to push and an interest to protect.

Also, as other reviewers note, he does love to portray himself int he most favourable of lights. People who've met him (including me, more than once) have different, though not negative, experiences.

Bottom line: this book is mainly a repetition and extension of his previous books (which make the title Flourish, a misnomer) and a PR exercise for both Seligman and his views. The former is of great interest and has utilitarian value, the latter, not so much.

Lastly, I once asked Seligman if he was familiar with David Smail's The Nature of Unhappiness. He wasn't. But he, you and everybody surely ought to be. It's the clearest, most concise yet comprehensive description of the process by which people come to be unhappy that I've read. Here's the punchline: "Most of the causes of distress which puts people in need of comfort are not soluble because they are originated by distal social powers which are out of reach of both sufferer and helper."
In other words, happiness and flourishing aren't exclusively up to you alone, they're interdependent with a host of social and external factors. In my decades of reading psychology, Smail is the only person who takes this seriously. That takes us back to Seligman. He's done pioneering and innovative research, has created an industry for positive psychology, is certainly generous with his findings, yet those blind spots remain which just reminds us not to ingest wholly or uncritically everything he purports because he's a man on a mission and won't countenance evidence to the contrary.
Still, I've read his past books and I'll read his next one.
Just be aware that valid perspectives other than his, do exist.

I found "Flourish" to be a mixed bag for me. There were definitely parts that were enlightening, but the majority of the book was a waste of time. I could have ended after reading chapters 1-4 and that would have been sufficient, based on the value I got from it. That's not to say that you won't like it, however. It depends on what you are looking for.

Much of the book is stories about Mr. Seligman's journey, creating the Well Being theory and taking it to the masses. The stories were interesting, but not what I was hoping for when I selected the book. I was looking for details on how I can flourish in my own life, but those particular nuggets were few and far between.

The stories that Mr. Seligman told often included many details about the studies he and others have done. I had no interest in these details, so I felt my time reading was wasted.

In terms of the writing style, the book felt more like a journal than a book for public consumption. The chapters seemed disconnected from each other and the transitions from chapter to chapter seemed weak or missing to me.

Mr. Seligman seems to be an expert in his field (I'm not an expert, so I can't really say), so from that standpoint, the book probably has some merit. However, I can't recommend it because the totality of time spent trying to achieve his initial claim "This book will help you flourish" was a fraction of the total book. I think there are many other books, better than this one, that do achieve that goal.

Martin Seligman is a good Self help author in My opinion. I have enjoyed reading some of his books. It is always interesting to get different ideas about things.

The book came on time and is an excellent book. I rx it to those who have an interest in positive psychology.

Seligman is one of my favorite writers and psychologists. Positive psychology is revolutionary. I would suggest this book to anyone!

Was an okay book I thought. Could have been written much much better.

This book is fantastic!

When Seligman, a PhD psychiatrist, began to understand what was going on in his field, he asked an interesting question: Why is it that modern psychiatry has discovered more than a dozen different serious issues, and can only address 2 of them?

So he rethought the entire process. He's more interested in what's right with you than what's wrong with you. And this is a very pragmatic point of view, insofar as finding out what's wrong with you or me doesn't provide much real benefit, or comfort either. Imagine how different it would be if we could find out what's right with ourselves, just for "openers!"

A very well-written document which turned "modern" psychiatry on its ear! 5 stars are not enough.

This book has been a truly great experience for me. It has been a source of such great discussion and debate with peers and colleagues; these debates have only further enhanced the overall learning experience associated with the book itself.

The Psychology of success and achievement is definitely worth paying attention to - Seligman provides research to prove it. I look forward to watching these concepts get employed by not just the researchers, clinicians and academics of the world, but by the generalists and even the laypeople!

The world is an exciting place to be when ideas such as these are getting shared!

***Updated review***

My comments above have proven useless to those seeking insight on the book itself. Duly noted. Here's an attempt to correct that issue:

Psychology has a long tradition of trying to understand what ails the human psyche, where does the brain let us down? where do things go wrong? what barriers prevent us from achieving well-being? Seligman turns this emphasis on its head and looks at what makes the human psyche shine. By exploring how humans succeed, what inspires us, what causes us to cherish moments in life, he helps the reader uncover tactics for a new perspective on life. Using the model of PERMA, Seligman shows us the benefits of Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Achievement; by examining how each of these things impact humans, he shares some valuable tools for each of us to use in our pursuit of Well-being. Moving from the common Pathology focus, he uses the powers of psychology to promote the betterment of mankind. It's an inspirational book.