Optimal Experience: Psychological Studies of Flow in Consciousness

by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi

What constitutes enjoyment of life? Optimal Experience: Psychological Studies of Flow in Consciousness offers a comprehensive survey of theoretical and empirical investigations of the "flow" experience, a desirable or optimal state of consciousness that enhances a person's psychic state. "Flow" can be said to occur when people are able to meet the challenges of their environment with appropriate skills, and accordingly feel a sense of well-being, a sense of mastery, and a heightened sense of self-esteem. The authors show the diverse contexts and circumstances in which flow is reported in different cultures (e.g. Japan, Korea, Australia, Italy), and describe its positive emotional impacts. They reflect on the concept of flow vis-à-vis modern social structures, historical phenomena, and evolutionary biocultural selection. The ways in which the ability to experience flow affects work satisfaction, academic success, and the overall quality of life are suggested; and the childrearing practices that result in the ability to derive enjoyment from life, considered.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Ebooks

432 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1988

About the author

A Hungarian psychology professor, who emigrated to the United States at the age of 22. Now at Claremont Graduate University, he is the former head of the department of psychology at the University of Chicago and of the department of sociology and anthropology at Lake Forest College.

He is noted for both his work in the study of happiness and creativity and also for his notoriously difficult name, in terms of pronunciation for non-native speakers of the Hungarian language, but is best known as the architect of the notion of flow and for his years of research and writing on the topic. He is the author of many books and over 120 articles or book chapters. 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." His works are influential and are widely cited.

Reviews

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

A groundbreaking book on the simple topic of happiness - what makes us happy? The author's conclusion is that people are happiest when we are engaged in activities that we find so interesting that we get absorbed in them, losing awareness of ourselves, of the passage of time, and so on, and that the happiest people are those who spend the most time in such activities. Simple idea, but there aren't many more important.

[Mark]

Had via Summit for 3 weeks and could not renew. Have a scan of title page, tp verso and TOC. Edited volume with following sections: A theoretical model of optimal experience; Varieties of the flow experience; Flow as a way of life; and, The measurement of flow in everyday life. 22 papers. Looks excellent.

[Carl · Rating 4 out of 5]

The seminal work on flow. Good collection of case studies by various researchers using Csikszentmihalyi's theories and methodologies.

[Gloria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm an applied anthropologist who is in my spare time reading more books about psychological methods. I found this book to be very practical, deep and insightful and almost every essay surprised me with some intriguing and useful sociological/psychological mental model. I really recommend this book to everyone: Cskiszentmihalyi's insights could benefit anybody really.

[Aseem Joshi · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a budding researcher in psych and Flow, this was a very solid compilation and evaluation of 21 research papers. Might be a bit too technical for the layperson, but mind-broadening read