This paper is book review on the work of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi entitled Flow- the Psychology of Optimal Experience. The author is a psychologist and is currently the director of Quality of Life Research Center at the Drucker School of Management, a non-profit research institute that studies positive psychology or human strengths such as optimism, creativity, intrinsic motivation and responsibility. The author is also known with his books such as Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Intention published in 1996; Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life in 1997; and Good Business: Flow, Leadership and the Making of Meaning in 2003.
The book basically deals with the psychological theory “flow”. The author defined flow as the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter (, 1990). When one is in a state of flow, he simply enjoys what he is doing and in absolute absorption of an activity.
The book deals with the optimal experience or simply happiness, on why it is difficult to be happy and how one’s life can be meaningful by finding real happiness. It started with an introduction about Aristotle’s conclusion that more than anything else, men and women, seek for happiness (, 1990). The author discovered that happiness is not something that happens or a result of a good fortune but a condition that can not be consciously searched for. According to the author, there are outside forces that contribute of whether we feel good or bad and these forces are beyond our control such as our looks, the time we were born and to whose parents and even the environment we will grow are beyond our control. Generally, the book emphasized that it is difficult to be happy because the universe was simply not built for our happiness (, 2003).
The book is the fulfillment of the author’s research on the state of optimal experience. Optimal experience is those times when people report feelings of concentration and deep enjoyment. With his study, the author found out that people feel genuinely happy when they are in the “flow”. A person is said to be in the flow when he feels alert and strong effortlessly and unselfconsciously with what he is doing like in an activity when he is so absorbed with that, for a while he never care on his surrounding, feeling the optimal experience. Optimal experience can be understood as the feeling of having control in one’s actions regardless of the outside forces around us. Optimal experience is also something that we make happen like opportunities and challenges and are sometimes not easy to control but in the long run can be mastered.
The author tried to determine what people really feel when at their optimal experience to be able to discuss effectively the theory “flow”. The book tells the reader how pleasurable the state of flow can be and how one can achieve this state. The book examines the process of achieving happiness through the control of one’s inner life. This means that happiness is something that can be achieved and independent of outside forces. Everything a person experiences is represented in the mind as information and the ability to control this information will lead us to what kind of life we like.
However, flow is interrupted by internal conflict and a preoccupation with socially conditioned desires. This is why a person should set realistic goals, focus on them, and learn to adapt to external environment that may cause unhappiness.
All in all, the book simply states that the key to optimal experience or happiness is the bringing out of order to consciousness or the control of the mind. Those who are in control of the mind sets realistic goals, do exactly the things they find enjoyment or fulfilling and not letting outside forces interrupt the flow.
This psychology book does not tell the reader on the things to do and not to do in order to be happy but it is a form of self-help book that tells the reader theories. It is up to the reader whether to be convinced and apply these theories on themselves or not. Generally, the author is convincing and the book can be helpful especially to those who can not really find happiness even on just small things that can satisfy human such as a simple hobby or simple sport. Happiness really depends on how a person looks at life and this book can be of help to those persons who want to be more competitive in any aspects of life. The book is helpful in realizing happiness and how to find it within one’s inner self.
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Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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