Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life [Paperback]

Martin E. P. Seligman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1992

People everywhere are looking for a reason to believe--in themselves, in their world--and Learned Optimism offered enough answers to vault it onto bestseller lists everywhere. An even larger audience of pessimists who need to change their lives awaits this trade paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The author, a leading expert on the theory and treatment of depression, has written a lively, very accessible book on the power of a positive outlook and how to develop it. Basing his theories on his original research on "learned helplessness," Seligman goes on to develop a systematic model for the cognitive treatment of depression. This book summarizes his more recent work on a person's characteristic predisposition toward optimism or pessimism. Convincingly demonstrating that an optimistic mood contributes to one's success and happiness, Seligman goes on to demonstrate how a more optimistic outlook can be developed. Presented for lay readers, this book can be highly recommended to professionals as well for its lucid and informative introduction to cognitive therapy and its approach to issues of mood and depression.
- Paul Hymowitz, New York Medical Coll.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Dr. Robert H. Schuller author of Tough Times Never Last, But Tough People Do One of the most important books of the century -- an absolute must-read for all persons interested in genuinely understanding and helping our fellow human beings. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Pocket; Rep edition (February 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671741586
• ISBN-13: 978-0671741587
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #463,569 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Martin E. P. Seligman, Ph.D., is the Fox Leadership Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, the director of the Positive Psychology Network, and former president of the American Psychological Association. Among his twenty books are Learned Optimism and The Optimistic Child.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

74 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, but awful audio version!, July 25, 2003

By 

sparkygal "sparkygal" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Learned Optimism (Audio Cassette)

I received this book several years ago and can say it literally changed my life. It gives great advice on how to deal with habitual pessimism and the free-floating anxiety that often accompanies it. I use the techniques in the book and they really do work. My copy is dog-eared and tattered from lots of use!! Thank you Martin Seligman!!!!!!!!

I cannot recommend the audio version. I got it several years after buying the book, thinking it would be a nice refresher. It was so badly done I was amazed. The abridged version of the book is read in a very boring style and LOTS of minutes are wasted in a detailed explanation of how to do a written self-test. I remember thinking "I can just read the instructions, why are they reading all the instructions out loud?" Horrible.

So definitely BUY the book and benefit from it, but SKIP the tape version.

41 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Learned Optimism, February 5, 2005

By 

J. Loane "josie" (Brisbane, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Learned Optimism (Audio CD)

I received this book about a year ago and I think it is the best self help book on the market. It has been fantastic and has helped me so much by giving me scientifically proven techniques to change the way I look at events or situations.

I use to read a few self help books to stay positive and ended up giving them up as I found they never gave me any help and where filled with 'take care of your self, your precious' and `say these nice things to yourself and you will have a better life'. I suppose that is all well and good but at the end of the day it never really helped me or changed anything. They could never snap me out of a downward spiral however the techniques in this book can. This book gave me concrete ways to help myself in situations where I get emotional or upset and it is something that will always need to be worked on but if you do it then it gets easier and you are in more control and you are a more rational and effective person.

The book is easily understood even though alot of it is scientific and best of all the principals are backed up by studies so the book has validation. All of the principals are pretty basic and leave you feeling `well of course' however they really do help and like most books it brings your attention to things you may already know, but may not apply. If you enjoy going to psychologists and raking up all the bad events of your life and leave with no way to help yourself in these emotional times when you are alone, then you may not appreciate this book. While it is great to get help, it is important to get the right help and understand why something may not be helping you. Cognitive therapy seems to put the responsibility back on the individual, while you may not have chosen the way you choose to perceive your life (usually from parents) it is your responsibility to change this and to make the long term commitment to change.

I have also read 2 other books by Martin Seligman and I also found these great. It is not essential to read all of these books but I found Learned Optimism so interesting, and that I got so much out of reading it and using the techniques that I wanted to see what was included in the other two books. The other books hold similar material however go into greater detail in other ways like talking about the angry person and why they are like that etc... I would recommend any of these books to everyone as there is something there for all, it would probably be best though to start with Learned Optimism.

37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Helped me to change the way I saw myself and my Life!, June 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Learned Optimism (Paperback)

I found the research done for the book the be stepping stones in learning why I had lost all enjoyment in life. Several Items mentioned did not register as affecting my outlook. Several days after reading them and thinking back over the comments I realized how they fit into the distorted picture I had of my life. This book caused me to look back over my life and see events for what they were, as opposed to personal attacks by some evil score keeper in the great beyond.