Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's famous investigations of optimal experience have revealed that what makes an experience genuinely satisfying is a state of consciousness called flow.

During flow, people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and a total involvement with life. In this new edition of his groundbreaking classic work, Csikszentmihalyi demonstrates the ways this positive state can be controlled, not just left to chance Flow.

The Psychology of Optimal Experience teaches how, by ordering the information that enters our consciousness, we can discover true happiness and greatly improve the quality of our lives.

About the Author

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is professor and former chairman of the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago.

His previous books include Flow and The Evolving Self. Flow was shown on the 1993 NBC Super Bowl broadcast as the book that inspired Jimmy Johnson, then coach of the Dallas Cowboys.

It was also a selection of the Book of the Month Club and the Quality Paperback Book Club.

Preface	p. xi
Happiness Revisited	p. 1
Introduction	p. 1
Overview	p. 5
The Roots of Discontent	p. 8
The Shields of Culture	p. 10
Reclaiming Experience	p. 16
Paths of Liberation	p. 20
The Anatomy of Consciousness	p. 23
The Limits of Consciousness	p. 28
Attention as Psychic Energy	p. 30
Enter the Self	p. 33
Disorder in Consciousness: Psychic Entropy	p. 36
Order in Consciousness: Flow	p. 39
Complexity and the Growth of the Self	p. 41
Enjoyment and the Quality of Life	p. 43
Pleasure and Enjoyment	p. 45
The Elements of Enjoyment	p. 48
The Autotelic Experience	p. 67
The Conditions of Flow	p. 71
Flow Activities	p. 72
Flow and Culture	p. 77
The Autotelic Personality	p. 83
The People of Flow	p. 90
The Body in Flow	p. 94
Higher, Faster, Stronger	p. 96
The Joys of Movement	p. 99
Sex as Flow	p. 100
The Ultimate Control: Yoga and the Martial Arts	p. 103
Flow through the Senses: The Joys of Seeing	p. 106
The Flow of Music	p. 108
The Joys of Tasting	p. 113
The Flow of Thought	p. 117
The Mother of Science	p. 120
The Rules of the Games of the Mind	p. 124
The Play of Words	p. 128
Befriending Clio	p. 132
The Delights of Science	p. 134
Loving Wisdom	p. 138
Amateurs and Professionals	p. 139
The Challenge of Lifelong Learning	p. 141
Work As Flow	p. 143
Autotelic Workers	p. 144
Autotelic Jobs	p. 152
The Paradox of Work	p. 157
The Waste of Free Time	p. 162
Enjoying Solitude and Other People	p. 164
The Conflict between Being Alone and Being with Others	p. 165
The Pain of Loneliness	p. 168
Taming Solitude	p. 173
Flow and the Family	p. 175
Enjoying Friends	p. 185
The Wider Community	p. 190
Cheating Chaos	p. 192
Tragedies Transformed	p. 193
Coping with Stress	p. 198
The Power of Dissipative Structures	p. 201
The Autotelic Self: A Summary	p. 208
The Making of Meaning	p. 214
What Meaning Means	p. 215
Cultivating Purpose	p. 218
Forging Resolve	p. 223
Recovering Harmony	p. 227
The Unification of Meaning in Life Themes	p. 230
Notes	p. 241
References	p. 281
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

Summary

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials