The Good Life: Lessons from the World's Longest Scientific Study of Happiness

An important book that helps you step back and take stock of a life. In brief, a distinctive book. It is substantive but not in any way arcane and academic. Distinctive in that it draws on “both” the longitudinal Harvard Adult Development Project as well as the authors extensive clinical experience. Importantly, we get glimpses here of lived lives thru the famous longitudinal Harvard study. In fact, I would have liked the authors to have drawn more extensively on that work, go deeper, draw more on the project field notes, provide more of what anthropologists call “think descriptions”. That 84 year Harvard Adult Development Study and it’s conclusions is the connecting thread in this book. Those macro conclusions concerning “relationships” and “attention” are the must get right tasks in a life. In this book, they are well illustrated with concrete case vignettes, reflective observations, and a small number of reflection questions and tools, not abstract development theories. A book that helps us see and better understand social and intimate relationships, family, marriage, friendships, the differences and emotional tensions in relationships, and the importance of attention and the need for radical curiosity in a fully lived life. Indeed, a book to read slowly. A book to ponder. A book to dialogue with and journal with. In fact, the authors at times reflect on their own lives and we see them as fellow travelers. Simply put, a book that can help you see the coherence or lack thereof in one’s own life and, importantly, where and how to live and craft a better life, a more intentional life. Not a perfect book. Overwritten in parts vs. letting the powerful stories from the Harvard Adult Development Study speak for themselves. Also, a few more diagnostic and reflective tools in a stand alone appendix would make the book more a field guide and even more useful.

My Goodreads review of this book
The Good Life by Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz is based on the Grant Study, an 80-year longitudinal study of a select group of Harvard graduates from the 1950s. The Grant study has been to the study of healthy mental and social adaptation akin to what the Framingham study has been for the study of cardiovascular health and the development of cardiovascular illness. These types of studies identify people who have not yet manifested illness and follow them prospectively over time. These studies are like a photo album over the course of one’s life rather than a single photograph. The prospective study design allows one to identify risk factors for the development of cardiovascular disease in studies like Framingham.
In the Grant study, factors like the use of recognized psychological defenses or adaptive behaviors can be correlated with subsequent psychological or social outcomes. The outcomes typically are discussed in terms of a range, for example happy, long-term marriage versus unhappy union with or without divorce, versus the choice to remain single. Social and cultural norms and biases influence the interpretation of many of these psychosocial outcomes. This makes the process more nuanced than medical outcomes like heart attack or stroke, which are uniformly seen as adverse. The separation of desirable from adverse psychosocial outcomes can be facilitated by using the individual’s own interpretation of satisfying versus unsatisfying or happy versus unhappy.
One can look for an association between explanatory variables like the use of specific psychological defenses and different outcome variables, like a satisfying career or happy marriage. By comparing the relative strength of these associations, one can infer whether specific outcomes are more or less likely among groups with and without the different adaptive behaviors and/ or use of known defenses. The inferences are bolstered by vignettes from many individuals’ stories.
The Good Life is a follow-up to the report by George Vaillant, Adaptation to Life. In my Goodreads review of Adaptation to Life, I mentioned several motifs that Dr. Vaillant advanced:
• Isolated childhood traumas appeared to be less important than sustained relationships with important people in the subjects’ lives.
• Lives changed over time.
• The key to understanding the subjects’ psychology or psychopathology was to understand the subjects’ adaptive mechanisms or use of psychological defenses.
• Human development continues throughout one’s life.
• Mental health can be considered somewhat independent of moral and cultural values.

These themes are developed further in Waldinger's and Schulz's book, The Good Life. It continues to emphasize the important role of close relationships in the observed subject’s physical and mental health, sense of satisfaction, and personal happiness.

Critically, this book begins to generalize some of the things we readers might learn from the more, and less, adaptive members of the observed cohort. This process begins with one of the most important lessons I took away from my medical school psychiatry rotations: try to observe how we feel in the presence of our patients. Our feelings can be important clues to our patients’ psychiatric diagnoses. This insight can be applied to interpersonal dynamics with relatively healthy people including our family and friends.
From this simple but fraught insight comes the acronym of this book: WISER which the authors apply to all sorts of close human relationships aiming in each case to improve the quality of those relationships. W stands for Watch as in observing our own feelings. As the psychiatry adage goes, 'Don't just do something. Sit there.' And while sitting, observe our own feelings. The I stands for Interpret, whereby we are to ponder, why am I feeling this way? The trained therapist continuously aims for greater understanding and empathy, and less judgment, in answering this question. Based upon one's answer to the previous question, we consider our options as to how to respond. The S stands for Select, whereby we choose from among the options. We then are to Engage or implement with care, meaning with awareness of the other person's feelings. The R stands for Reflect. After trying this sequence, we reflect on how it went, and what we can learn from the sequence. Much of the book consists in applying these steps to our important relationships (marriage, parenting, work), based on the data and stories of participants in the Grant Study.

Part of the frustration I had with psychiatry, as a medical trainee, was the emphasis on deterministic factors (nature and nurture) over which I, as a physician had no control. My therapist-daughter and I joke about this limitation with the question, 'How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb? It only takes one psychiatrist to change a light bulb, so long as the light bulb wants to change. It was no accident that I became an interventional cardiologist, a field in which some of my efforts could produce changes largely independent of my patient's compliance, at least over the short haul. For example, when I implanted a coronary stent during an acute myocardial infarction, my efforts could enhance blood flow and relieve myocardial ischemia, without depending upon the patient's desire or efforts to change.

My biggest gain from reading both Adaptation to Life and The Good Life is the sense of hope for facilitating, not causing, or controlling, healthy change in my relationships with other people, including my family members, friends, and my patients. It starts with the efforts to change myself, particularly in becoming more understanding and empathic, and less judgmental.

Among books on finding happiness & building a meaningful life, this one stands above . If you liked “From Strength to Strength” by Arthur Brooks and “Atomic Habits” by James Clear, you’ll like this book because it so beautifully brings the what, the why AND the how.

Eighty five years of Harvard research boiled down to engaging stories and simple daily takeaways. This will be my go to gift for midlife birthdays.

This is a superb book that's appropriate for professionals and the general public. The authors integrate decades of research with compelling narratives of some of the participants. It will leave you with hope that there are concrete , manageable things that all of us can do to improve our lives.

How unfortunate that the workbook is featured below the actual book. Hopefully, Amazon will remove it, ASAP.

Expected to enjoy this book very much. Found it only adequate. Far too heavy on anecdotes, was a substantial trudge to complete the book, most of it anyway. Like a cocktail conversation with someone you thought might never end, eager to break away. Found the far better option, more cohesive, more fluid read, to be "The Algebra of Happiness."

In about 1988, after 50 years of carefully examining the lives of 724 men from both a group of Harvard undergraduates and a group of boys from the Boston area, the longitudinal Harvard Adult Development Project leader claimed that the most successful men in the group used ALTRUISM, SUPPRESSION, HUMOR, ANTICIPATION and CREATIVITY to become successful. The leader of the project then wrote the book ADAPTATION TO LIFE, which is a very specific description of what constitutes a mature response to life's setbacks and what constitutes an immature response. The mature responses led to the success of some men in the group.

Recently, after 34 more years of the study for a total of 84 years, the book THE GOOD LIFE was written by the current leaders of the project and they claimed that good RELATIONSHIPS are the key to the good life,

Perhaps in 2038, after concluding the 100th year of the study, a final project leader will use some artificial intelligence procedure to analyze all of the collected data and determine what the successful members themselves actually thought led to their success. Perhaps they believed that "taking charge" of their lives and using STOIC principles led to their success. Perhaps some of them believed that participating in the study helped them to sort out and improve their lives.

Perhaps ALL of the items mentioned above helped the successful project participants become successful. Currently only 19 or less of the original project participants are living and the project now includes their children. With all the help now available for students with learning disabilities, perhaps the second generation in the project will have a higher percentage of participants who become successful.

I gave the book only one star because I felt that the authors took too long (over 300 pages) to make their point that relationships are important. Also I was bored by all the detail about the personal relationship of the authors.

A primer on life, written in a warm, inviting, welcoming, easily accessible manner. I found my self with the people in the studies, walking beside them, imagining what they were feeling and thinking. The book takes us on a discovery of what it means to be human. This is a monumental piece of work. If you only read one book in your life, make this the one. As an avid reader of non fiction, I found this to be one of the most profound books that I have read.

The Harvard Study of Adult Development has followed the lives of two generations of individuals from the same families for more than eighty years. And the results from that study were just published in the book, "The Good Life: Lessons from the World's Longest Scientific Study of Happiness."
The secret to happiness? It all boils down to the relationships - that "good relationships keep us happier, healthier, and help us live longer."
All of this could have been said in an article; BUT the joy of reading this book is the stories, anecdotes, and correlational studies that bring this thesis to life.
Most importantly, you start to take stock of all the relationships you have in your life - the strong ties you have as well as the "weak" ties - and how you engage and direct your energy. It's not the end result but the process - the journey.
The authors say at the end, Recognize "that the good life is not a destination. It is the path itself, and the people who are walking it with you. As you walk, second by second you can decide to whom and to what you give your attention. Week by week you can prioritize your relationships and choose to be with the people who matter. Year by year you can find purpose and meaning through the lives that you enrich and the relationships you cultivate. By developing your curiosity and reaching out to others - family, loved ones, coworkers, friends, acquaintances - even strangers - with one thoughtful question at a time, one moment of devoted, authentic attention at a time, you strengthen the foundation of a good life.
And that is priceless inspiration.

One of the most inspiring books I’ve ever read. I listened to it on audible. Author’s voice was very pleasant and calming. Also bought hardcover book. It’s that good.

"The Good Life" by Waldinger & Schulz is a terrific book: extremely well written, insightful and based on rigorous social and behavioral science. The book's translation of extraordinary scientific findings into actionable advice will help many of us bring greater meaning into our lives and, by default, improved health, joy, and human connection.