The book Flow: The psychology of optimal experience by M Csikszentmihalyi describes the methods and approaches to achieve happiness and develop a positive attitude towards the world other people. The book consists of 10 chapters devoted to the problem of meaning of life and happiness and possible ways to achieve good life. The former views are associated with the traditional role that counselor sanctions, while the latter forces counselor to abandon familiar theories and methods. The book is interested and should be recommended by coachers to their clients as it allows self-learning and self-education of them.
The main advantage of the book is interested plot and simple language. The information and facts presented in the book are easily understood by unprepared audience. The book involves citations of philosophers and religious leaders, political leaders and common people who live near us. The book describes the existence of different camps that blocking development toward the holistic approach advocated by the members of the community mental health movement. A coacher is most likely to conceive of psychiatric disorders as having a social basis and utilize a somatic treatment. Preparing patients to reading any book, coachers should emphasize psychological, or intrapsychic, models of happiness and quality life conditions, and prefer non-theoretical book as the treatment of choice. These patients would believe that specific models of happiness are identifiable, as are precise treatment modalities. On the other hand, the coachers are more likely to favor socio-environmental explanations of good life and happiness that put aside specific approaches of social illness in favor of schemes that take into account social changes. In the end, the practical book with vivid examples is supposed to prevail.
The selected book can be used by patients alone as init involves simple conceits and notions. It speaks about such issues as happiness and human consciousness, quality of life and working relations, solitude and relations with other people. Stated in a different way, searching for a single cause for every social problem is futile, because many environmental stressors are involved in precipitating a social event. Advanced by the book should be a program of primary prevention aimed at high-risk patient groups that strengthened their coping abilities and which relied on self-learning interventions rather than therapy. With regard to the selected book, the most important point is that emphasis is shifted from remediation to the prevention of problems and new thinking patterns. Many of the same arguments assembled by the coachers’ establishment to undermine the community mental health are also presented against the new wave of prevention situations. The proposed book cites examples held to be premature in the absence of social models for specific problems. In addition, as noted in the book, this standard of quality life and happiness is not operative in justifying traditional social therapies for social problems; nor is it required in public health.
The selected book is effective because it will help coacher to save time usually spent on “lectures” and use more time for discussions and therapies. Although the social happiness and good life concepts are intended to help all who needed psychological health care, this orientation is potentially an especially significant source of care for cultural and social groups because many of them have no practical treatment alternative. In general, the book reflects the philosophy of the society and its mental and social problems fully appreciated by psychologists and other mental health professionals. Also, it is important to note that clients should be trained to adopt a very different set of role expectations. There is no standard then, and precious little training now, pertaining to intervention with socially diverse clients. The formal preparation of coachers are often included a systematic presentation or discussion of social and personal information.
The book is effective because it involve vivid examples of human happiness and helps patients to find the best approach to happiness in their own life. The social mental health approach simply could not be sustained in the face of diminishing resources and increasing personal demands. In addition, social health coachers were now in head-to-head competition with other services providers. The proposed book supports self-learning and self-development of clients and stimulates them to further research hand self-improvements. Eventually the tenuous legitimacy of the social mental health is eroded, once social interventions began to be dominated by social workers. Reading of this book will give a client an advantage in terms of appreciating the relevance of socially based knowledge. Even after these readings are widely acknowledged, and significant headway should be made in personal discussions and therapies, to rectify the situation.
In sum, the selected book, Flow: The psychology of optimal experience, is one of the best readings for clients as it allows self-learning and self-development processes. The book avoids difficult concepts and theoretical explanations of the life events but includes numerous examples and citations of philosophers and political leaders. Though few in number, such books as Flow: The psychology of optimal experience, along with a mental help, are an important source of information and knowledge acquisitions of clients.
Bibliography
Csikszentmihalyi, M. 1990, Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York: Harper Collins.