Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Description

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

After the opening, the book immediately became very exciting for me. Firstly, by using a scientific language that I am partial to. Secondly, it became apparent that the book shall constitute a philosophical work, having existentialist philosophy as the foundation. Lastly, the author started telling real-life stories gathered through the research he conducted in the past. Philosophy, psychology, and illustrative examples taken from life started intertwining with the joint aim of discussing enjoyment, happiness, and meaning.

I would not say that the book is very practical, at least in all the subtopics it brings up. The author characterizes the flow clearly and provides a lot of clear examples of achieving it, but, in my opinion, the book ironically lacks the necessary psychological discussion to be practical. It provides a bunch of wonderful insights, but mainly on the necessary mindset to acquire happiness, without providing strategies to change our nature and behaviour. This is especially visible in the 9th chapter, where coping with suffering is discussed. Mindset is not enough to overcome anxiety, depression, or trauma. The book is a lovely philosophically-psychological book, but I would not recommend it to someone looking for practical solutions.

So as the philosophical text, the book is a wonderful adventure through the flaws and chances inside human psychics. If you like a rather abstract discussion such as on what is consciousness, exploring the notions of its integrity or entropy, the book is for you. It has a couple of flaws, such as a bit too categorical statements from time to time. The author also goes a bit beyond the scope of the book, especially at the end, but I cannot deny that it makes the work more complete in the sense.

Reading the book was a nice, exciting philosophical adventure, providing a lot of insights into happiness and meaning.

✅ Genre: General Psychology, Self-help.

✅ Premium Quality Books.

✅ High Printing quality.

✅ Eye Friendly.

✅ Matt cover (Paperback).