Feeling Good: The Science of Well-Being

by C. Robert Cloninger

Book Overview

All human beings have spontaneous needs for happiness, self-understanding, and love. In Feeling Good: The Science of Well Being, psychiatrist Robert Cloninger describes a way to coherent living that satisfies these strong basic needs through growth in the uniquely human gift of self-awareness. The scientific findings that led Dr. Cloninger to expand his own views in a stepwise manner during 30 years of research and clinical experience are clearly...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195051378
• ISBN13: 9780195051377
• Release Date: May 2004
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

A Refreshing Addition to Mental Health Literature

After spending some time reflecting on a statement that would do justice to this work, I realized that nothing I could say would be as well put as what I found in the following reviews: "A remarkably ambitious and scholarly masterpiece from a gifted psychiatrist with a deep understanding of human nature. By weaving a fascinating tapestry of philosophy, psychology, mystical experience, the latest neurobiology and genetics, Cloninger has produced fresh and practical insights into the human mind."-Frederick K. Goodwin, M.D., Former Director, National Institute of Mental Health, Host of public radio's The Infinite Mind "In this audacious new book, Robert Cloninger provides a rare synthesis of the biological, the psychosocial, and the spiritual. The author manages to be comprehensive in scope, scholarly in method, yet accessible in his prose style. He forges a new integrative understanding of what it means to be human in a provocative and imaginative tour de force."-Glen O. Gabbard, M.D., Brown Foundation Chair of Psychoanalysis and Professor of Psychiatry, Baylor College of Medicine "Fasten your mindbelts and get ready for a heady paradigm shift as you accompany Cloninger on his epiphanic and still-evolving voyage toward understanding the human mind. Fearlessly embracing complex adaptive systems as one element in his brilliant synthesis of psychosocial and neuroscience approaches, spiced by Eastern and Western philosophies, and unashamed by religious inspiration, this book will stretch your mind."-I.I. Gottesman, Ph.D., Hon. FRCPsych Bernstein Professor in Adult Psychiatry, University of Minnesota "Cloninger has written a book of startling originality. His imaginative, integrative, and wide-ranging scholarship offers us a view of human nature and mental health never seen before."-George E. Vaillant, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Author of Aging Well and other books "An intellectual tour de force by a creative pioneer in the study of personality, this important book lays out for us a comprehensive, thought-provoking proposal for a science of well-being. As such it has broad implications for an exciting integration of the natural and social sciences, the end result of which should be a much needed improvement in our understanding of the human condition in an increasingly complex and challenging world."-Marcus E. Raichle, M.D., Professor of Radiology, Neurology, and Neurobiology, Washington University School of Medicine

a landmark on the path of well-being

This book was exceedingly enjoyable to read. Right from the beginning, readers of Feeling Good: The Science of Well-Being are whisked away on an unprecedented philosophical and scientific oddysey. Beginning with a brief overview of philosophy, Dr. Cloninger shows how certain beliefs on the nature of being, knowledge, and conduct, which provide the basis for his science of well-being, are confirmed by current scientific thought. Examining the ideas of those that he calls "positive philosophers," Dr. Cloninger points to how modern science is beginning to validate the worldviews held by these thinkers, and suggests that what allowed them such wisdom and penetrating insight was not merely their intellectual ability, but rather their intuitive capacity. Dr. Cloninger takes us through his initial 2 theories of personality and shows how neither his biological model nor his cognitive model of personlity (nor contemporary theories of personality for that matter) are comprehensive enough to explain many fundamental human experiences such as: creativity, self-awareness, free-will, and intuition. Inspired by these limitations he conceived his model of coherence which points to human self-awareness as the path towards well-being. He describes the importance of rational intuition vs. the inadequacy of reason and cognitive strategies for acquiring freedom and happiness; then he dares the reader to inquire into whether it is possible "to learn to share the intuitions of a wise person." Integrating recent scientific discoveries from biology, genetics, physics, and neurology with the philosophical and moral truths from the likes of Plato, St. Augustine, Spinoza, Hegel, and Gandhi, Dr. Cloninger's Feeling Good is a book that is certain to become landmark on the path of well-being.

The wellness of well-being

In his book Cloninger seeks to integrate psychology, sociology, genetics, physics, and the humanities by illustrating how each contributes to the knowledge of being human as it pertains to subjective well-being. In order to accomplish his laudatory goal, he brings his own intuitive wisdom and important disciplines to his table to convince the reader that not only is a science of health and well-being possible, but vastly overdue. Indeed, without a science of well being, how is it possible to have a valid science of illness or pathology? Perhaps the most integrative concept Cloninger employs is that of self-awareness of one's own consciousness. His second greatest concern is to collapse dualistic systems into coherent and unitary ones, only thought to be dualistic because of our Western manner of bifurcating the world. Though some readers may not be able to follow the nuances of each discipline, the thesis of his book is never lost, namely, that self-aware consciousness is both an end in itself and a means to life satisfaction, human authenticity, and a better social good. For Cloninger you cannot have subjective well-being without social well-being. Several years ago the American Psychological Association published in their major journal three separate issues on "Positive Psychology." The Jan. 2000 issue of American Psychology was devoted to "Happiness, Excellence, and Optimal Human Functioning." A year later the same journal dedicated issues to "Positive Psychology" and "Creativity." Publishing three separate issues in their house organ indicates A.P.A.'s awareness of the urgency to address these almost singularly important issues about the meaning of health. Cloninger has gone quite a few steps further ahan these A.P.A. publications by synthesizing vast amounts of loosely related data from numerous "stand-alone" academic disciplines, never before attempted.

A revealing and well-researched book

This book has helped me to explore the different influences that affect our happiness in life, and it has clarified what used to only be vague intuitions for me. Clearly Dr. Cloninger has spent most of his life exploring the fundamental issues that reach us all. I think this book gives us a preview of a new approach that many people will soon use in art and science.

A revolutionary future classic, here today

Dr. Cloninger's work has got to be the best non-fiction book I have read. This masterpiece is not only a truly revolutionary paradigm shift in psychology and psychiatry, but also accessible to everyone. I think anyone would have been impressed if he had managed to synthesis so many fields at all, but to have done so while keeping it in a language that everyone can understand is simply amazing. This book pulls together the most current research in hugely diverse academic fields and ties it together with history, philosophy, the classics, and spirituality. At last a book that puts forth a coherent understanding of a rich and full inner life that is balanced and not reduced by science. I think this book articulates, in a sublime way, what so many people of today are looking for. This is not just a modernization of the great classics or a summary/categorization of them but a truly creative leap forward. I am sure this is what early readers must have felt when psychology was first discerned and debated as a science. But here in this book, what was once just a dream of a happy life coupled with a clear and profound understanding of the human psyche is at last illuminated: a science of well-being. This book is what everyone in university who took a psych class; looking for something, trying to understand them self better searched for. Tools to discern and decode their feelings, reasoning, intimations, and intuitions. A way to sow all we already have into a rich inner life; leading to a happy life, a good life... of well-being. All this while still respecting that each person has their own unique, yet perennial way to develop; guided by there own psyche. What is within this book transformed my life and I am sure it can do the same for anyone who gives it the time to read it. See for yourself and pass it on.