1st Edition
Understanding Happiness A critical review of positive psychology
1. The Pursuit of Happiness 2. Love and Mania: Disorders of Happiness 3. The Power of Negative Emotions 4. The Happiness Industry 5. A Timeshare in Paradise: Of Gods and the Afterlife 6. Positive Psychology, Health, and Illness 7. Transforming the Self
Biography
Mick Power is Professor of Clinical Psychology and Director of Clinical Programmes at the National University of Singapore. He has previously worked in universities and hospitals in London, Tromsø, Milan, Beijing, Edinburgh and Lisbon. For many years he has worked with the World Health Organization to develop a measure of quality of life, the WHOQOL, that is now in widespread use throughout the world.
"Mick Power has done us a great service in helping facilitate a deeper and more nuanced understanding of what happiness is and how we might cultivate it (if not ‘pursue’ it). In particular, Power shows that flourishing does not mean being relentlessly cheerful and ‘positive,’ but rather is a complex tapestry woven from the many-shaded threads of a spectrum of emotional experiences (as indeed the recent ‘second wave’ of positive psychology is beginning to elucidate). There is a skepticism of received wisdom that is bracing, and a bold willingness to be challenging and provocative that will no doubt inspire and enthuse, irritate and provoke, and above all entertain and educate. Brimful with the latest empirical work as well as under-appreciated earlier studies, the book offers a cutting edge appreciation of the 'state of the art' in happiness studies." Dr Tim Lomas, Lecturer in positive psychology, University of East London, Co-author of Second Wave Positive Psychology: Embracing the Dark Side of Life
