The Feeling Good Handbook [Paperback]

David D. Burns (Author)

Book Description

Release date: May 1, 1999

This book helps you: free yourself from fears, phobias and panic attacks; overcome self-defeating attitudes; discover the five secrets of intimate communication; put an end to marital conflict; and, conquer your procrastination and unleash your potential for success. In Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy Dr David Burns introduced a groundbreaking, drug-free treatment for depression that has helped millions of people around the world. Now, in this long-awaited sequel, he reveals powerful new techniques and provides practical exercises that will help you cope with problems and learn how to make life a happier, more exhilarating experience.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"A wonderful achievement – the best in its class."
—M. Anthony Bates, Clinical Psychologist, Presbyterian Medical Center, Philadelphia

"Clear, systematic, forceful."
—Albert Ellis, Ph.D., President, Institute for Rational-Emotional Therapy

"This book makes a difference. Anyone who experiences emotional distress (that is, everyone) will find this book invaluable. Dr. Burns represents dozens of helpful exercises in his inimitable, lively, and self-revealing style."
—Jackie Persons, Ph.D., Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of California at San Francisco, and Director, San Francisco Bay Area Center for Cognitive Therapy.

"Dr. Burns has done it again. He has provided us with clearly described and practical guidelines for dealing with fears, anxieties, panic attacks, procrastination, and communication problems . . . invaluable."
—Marvin Goldfried, Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, State University of New York at Stony Brook

If you are looking for sound, workable advice on how to change your life a little or a lot, this is the book for you."
—Robert L. Leahy, Ph.D., Director, Center for Cognitive Therapy, New York

Product Details

• Paperback: 768 pages
• Publisher: Plume; Revised edition (May 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452281326
• ISBN-13: 978-0452281325
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1.6 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (137 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #642 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #3 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Psychology & Counseling > Psychotherapy, TA & NLP
  • #11 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Behavioral Sciences > Cognitive Psychology
  • #29 in Books > Self-Help > Success

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

578 of 585 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Effective and user-friendly tools September 2, 2001

By Phil

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

In both this book and its predecessor ("Feeling Good"), David Burns has done an excellent job of putting tools into our hands so we can change the feelings and behaviors that we want to change. The tools in this book that I've found most helpful include (i) instruments to measure both anxiety and depression, (ii) a "pleasure-predicting sheet," (iii) a daily mood log to help identify and change unwanted feelings, and (iv) tools to help you overcome procrastination.

I agree with another reviewer who said that this book and "Feeling Good" overlap to a great extent, and I recommend this one. You don't need to read "Feeling Good" first, and the worksheets in this "Handbook" are larger and easier to copy and work with.

While Dr. Burns uses tools from cognitive behavioral therapy, I strongly recommend that you also obtain "A Guide to Rational Living," by Albert Ellis. Dr. Ellis invented rational (cognitive) behavioral therapy in the mid-1950s and still writes, lectures, and works with clients. While Burns' books are generally better written than Ellis', Dr. Ellis teaches you how to use cognitive techniques more effectively than Dr. Burns does. Instead of just showing you how to recognize faulty thinking that produces unwanted feelings and behaviors and think of alternative thoughts, Dr. Ellis teaches you how to PERSUADE YOURSELF that this faulty thinking is both irrational and counter-productive. In my view, the difference in their approaches is similar to that between an intellectual discussion and a thoroughly persuasive speech. In order to make the desired changes, you need to convincingly and powerfully persuade yourself to change your thinking.

Together, this book and "A Guide to Rational Living" give you most all of the tools you need to experience the changes that you want in your feelings and behaviors. The approaches in both books require work. Passively reading them (or anything) will not lead to significant changes. The best news of all is this: There is hope! And you can have the tools at your fingertips.

151 of 154 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Very important book June 14, 2004

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

This is a crucial book to evaluate for those suffering from depression but skeptical of the effectiveness of most psychologists and self-help books.

Burns is one of the biggest popularizers of cognitive-behavioral therapy, one of extremely few therapeutic forms that have stood up to any scientific scrutiny. Over the last 20 years, CBT has become the predominant form of therapy practiced by psychologists. This book is intensive CBT, much more involving and direct than the form practiced in most psychologists' offices.

Burns takes a very simple approach: he does not place any weight on diagnostic categories or figuring out "why" people behave the way they do or the roots of their problems. Instead, every depressed thought is traced to irrational thought processes. Why those thought processes were developed is irrelevant; the challenge is identifying one's distortions and learning to think more rationally.

Contrary to some reviewers' opinions, I believe this book is best for people who have long-term depression in the medium range (recurrent major depression or dysthymia), with substantial experiences with psychologists. Clearly for more extreme cases - a manic depressive or a suicidal person - the first course of action should be a psychiatrist or psychologist, not a self-help book. This book requires a very high level of involvement and personal responsibility. I believe that it is patients who think of themselves as having a medical problem, seeing psychologists and taking medication for years and perhaps feeling dependent on them, who will at some crisis point become frustrated, develop the energy and motivation to work through a book like this and benefit the most from it. Patients with more minor depression will not feel sufficiently motivated to actually do the exercises, which take a substantial amount of time and clash with other life priorities.

CBT encourages short-term (only 12 weeks on average if seeing a psychologist!) therapy and extreme personal responsibility. For most problems, I believe CBT, either in the form of this book or combined with short-term therapy, is much better than seeing a psychologist long-term. Long-term psychotherapy without very clear goals strongly encourages dependence on the psychologist or medication and reinforces the idea that one is permanently ill. This dependence produces further irrational thinking and can very easily lead to continual depression. Reading a book like this and doing its exercises is an exercise in independence and self-reliance and a major accomplishment in itself. The ability to solve one's own problems is difficult to achieve but extremely powerful - perhaps the only solution - for relieving long-term depression.

Burns feels that virtually no one should be on medication long-term - more than about a year - a view that is somewhat debatable (he excludes, obviously, bipolar and schizophrenic patients). The long-term effectiveness of SSRIs is unproven, but Burns' one-year limit seems purely arbitrary.

CBT is also more art than science - although anyone with any experience with psychologists or self-help books will realize that this is true of the entire field. Often Burns' methods and categorizations of irrational thoughts seem completely arbitrary and hardly authoritative. They could probably use more refinement and clarity. What I think is important is that CBT, and even simply reading Burns' book "Feeling Good", have been demonstrated through scientific means - double-blind testing - to produce considerable improvement.

All in all, this is a book with a clear philosophy that has stood up to scientific scrutiny, unlike psychoanalysis or most other therapeutic methods practiced by psychologists. It requires high involvement and emphasizes personal responsibility, and one has to develop considerable motivation to make any use of it. But the results can be extremely worthwhile.

340 of 359 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars A moderately effective course in cognitive therapy May 22, 2002

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

Many people don't buy into the whole "root of your problems" mentality that seems to infect the mental health fields nowadays. That's understandable. There certainly is something to be said for a more pragmatic, straightforward approach to the treatment of certain mental states. It is to this group of people that Dr. David Burns addresses his Feeling Good Handbook.

The methods in The Feeling Good Handbook are aimed at helping those suffering from depression, anxiety, and other "mild" mental issues to train themselves into healthy mental patterns. Burns has put together a series of writing exercises and journaling that is intended to help readers recognize fallacies in their thought processes. He then spends a great deal of time on each of these fallacies of thought and how to overcome them.

Burns is an avid supporter of cognitive therapy. It is obvious that Burns feels the best way to mental health is through learning to master these negative thought processes. Furthermore, he states outright that it is possible to train yourself to be positive and happy by following these exercises.

Like most self-help books, Burns' popular book has both positive and negative attributes. Burns has managed to accurately classify the thought traps that those suffering from clinical depression and anxiety fall into. He also presents them in such a way that they are easily memorable and will often return to the reader's mind throughout the course of the day. Burns also includes a surprisingly accurate quiz to gauge the progress of the reader.

However, Burn's book depends very heavily on the reader following his instructions with exactness--and some of them are extremely tedious. This is, perhaps, not the best way to help those suffering with depression. Usually depression saps an individual of their desire to do anything at all. Additionally, Burns tends to be a little over-simplistic about his methods and even more over-enthusiastic about their results.

On its own, The Feeling Good Handbook is a moderately useful book in the amateur diagnosis and treatment of mild depression. When used in conjunction with a counselor who understands cognitive therapy, this book is an excellent tool in training the reader to think in a new way.