Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Personal Information
Description
Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi was the Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Management at Claremont Graduate University. He is noted for his work in the study of happiness and creativity, but is best known as the architect of the notion of flow, a highly focused mental state. Martin Seligman, former president of the American Psychological Association, described Csikszentmihalyi as the world's leading researcher on positive psychology. Csikszentmihalyi once said: "Repression is not the way to virtue. When people restrain themselves out of fear, their lives are by necessity diminished. Only through freely chosen discipline can life be enjoyed and still kept within the bounds of reason." (Wikipedia)
Books
What Are You Optimistic About?
The nightly news and conventional wisdom tell us that things are bad and getting worse. Yet despite dire predictions, scientists see many good things on the horizon. John Brockman, publisher of Edge (www.edge.org), the influential online salon, recently asked more than 150 high-powered scientific thinkers to answer a vital question for our frequently pessimistic times: "What are you optimistic about?"Spanning a wide range of topics—from string theory to education, from population growth to medicine, and even from global warming to the end of world—What Are You Optimistic About? is an impressive array of what world-class minds (including Nobel Laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, New York Times bestselling authors, and Harvard professors, among others) have weighed in to offer carefully considered optimistic visions of tomorrow. Their provocative and controversial ideas may rouse skepticism, but they might possibly change our perceptions of humanity's future.
Theoretical/Conceptual Perspectives of Select Disorders of Childhood
Being Adolescent
An account of what is is to be a teenager in our modern world.
Creativity
Cram101 textbook outlines to accompany Flow, the psychology of optimal experience. Csikszentmihalyi. 1st ed
Credit card nation
Credit Card Nation is the first comprehensive look at an ongoing social and economic crisis-America's escalting dependence on credit. By locating consumer debt within the context of corporate and governmental debt.
The evolving self
The author of the bestselling Flow (more than 125,000 copies sold) offers an intelligent, inspiring guide to life in the future.
The art of seeing
Both a document and a handbook The Art of Seeing records Aldous Huxley's victory over near-blindness and details the simple exercises anyone can follow to improve eyesight. Using the method devised by Dr. William H. Bates, "the pioneer of visual education," as Huxley called him, and heeding the advice of Dr. Bates' disciple, Margaret D. Corbett, Aldous Huxley conquered a vision problem that had plagued him for more than a quarter century.
The Well of Creativity
New Dimensions radio-host Michael Toms explores the subject of creativity with six specialists: Julia Cameron (The Artist's Way), Natalie Goldberg (Writing Down the Bones), Deena Metzger (Writing for Your Life), composer-musician Keith Jarrett, author Isabel Allende, and psychologist Mihály Csikszentmihályi. If you are already familiar with the work of Toms's subjects, there is not a lot new here to be gleaned: Cameron recommends writing three pages first thing in the morning to get past fear and procrastination; Goldberg talks about the need to record the thoughts that come before your inner censor kicks in; Metzger emphasizes writing about what you don't already know ("It's very boring to write what you do know"); Jarrett talks about the need to push one's limits; Allende discusses the "particles of truth" that are found in the "bunch of lies" we call fiction; and Csikszsetmihályi talks about how "our education is based on convergence thinking," while creativity arises out of divergent thinking. But Michael Toms asks all the right questions, which makes this a fine introduction to the interviewees' thoughts on the matter of creativity and a good way to determine where to direct your reading next. --Jane Steinberg