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Title: The Situation Is Hopeless, but Not Serious (The Pursuit of Unhappiness) by Paul Watzlawick ISBN: 0-393-31021-3 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: July, 1993 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (5 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Funny and insightful!
Comment: This book is such a joy to read! It is one of the funniest books I have read and yet we learn so much about ourselves with it! It shows us how we create much of the unhappiness that we experience and in an indirect way, how we can step out of it. If you want to learn more about consciousness and how it relates to our happiness, read "The Ever-Transcending Spirit" by Toru Sato. It is not as funny but it tells us more about how consciousness works in a simple way. I think you will like it.
Rating: 5
Summary: LAUGHING YOURSELF OUT OF UNHAPPINESS
Comment: A review by the marqueeofburano: A wonderful, witty, exposé of our endeavors to live a more miserable life by Watzlawick, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at Stanford University. The treatment of the subject will surely make you laugh at yourself and thus, perhaps, contribute to make you a better person.
W. deals with the fundamental, painful, necessity of the human being to be unhappy (in order to be quiet). And in fact, he contends that the best chapters of universal literature dwell with disaster, tragedy, guilt, madness, etc.
Dante's Inferno-W. writes- is very superior to his Paradise; same case as Milton's Paradise Lost compared with his Paradise Regained; Faust I's greatness is proportionally inverse to the tediousness of Faust II. So the author embarks hilariously in a methodic introduction to the best and more verifiable mechanisms to achieve unhappiness. Samples:
Always be truthful to yourself. A principle, from Polonius in Hamlet,of the outmost necessity for us ( its application is what gets the guy killed by Hamlet like a rat). So then, we must resist any temptation to yield to any other criteria or opinion, apart from ours. Never compromise or accept someone else's advice. The author then addresses the issue of the old saying: "time cures all wounds"..... According to W. four sound mechanisms exist if you want to avoid time's healing effects and transform the past into a present source of suffering. In the exaltation of the past we find those that only remember the good things about their youth and not the years of insecurity and anxiety. In so doing, they have a consistent reserve of sadness about their miserable present...... Also, this fidelity to the past, impairs our ability to enjoy the present and fully dedicate our efforts to the endeavors of the moment. Another mechanism is to consistently dwell with the guilt complex that past errors create, finding excuses or scapegoats (our parents, God, chromosomes, teachers etc.) while doing nothing to avoid committing the same mistakes again.
The author drives his point with practical examples. For instance the story of the hammer. A man wants to hang a painting. He has the nail, but not the hammer. Therefore it occurs to him to go over to the neighbor and ask him to lend him his hammer. But at this point, doubt sets in. What if he doesn't want to lend me the hammer? Yesterday he barely spoke to me. Maybe he was in a hurry. Or, perhaps, he holds something against me. But why? I didn't do anything to him. If he would ask me to lend him something, I would, at once. How can he refuse to lend me his hammer? People like him make other people's life miserable. Worst, he thinks that I need him because he has a hammer. This is got to stop ! And suddenly the guy runs to the neighbor's door, rings, and before letting him say anything, he screams: "You can keep your hammer, you b......"
Watzlawick not only discussess techniques to create false problems, but also the ones that make it actually possible to avoid solving problems and conver them into eternal torments. Here we get the example of the man that claps his hands every ten seconds. Asked why he does that, he answers: "to drive away the elephants..." -"But why, there are no elephants here"- The guy says: "Precisely".
This is a very funny book. It deals, with a fresh and delightful approach, with many of our karmas and mind bothering mosquitoes.......
Rating: 5
Summary: Hilarious
Comment: Brilliant. When I wasn't laughing out loud, I was pierced by his trenchant obervations. Shows us how we choose unhappiness without even thinking about it. He is no Pangloss, the world is a tough place, but Watzlawick shows us how we make it worse than it has to be for ourselves. Highly, highly recommended for anyone with a sense of humor who wants to know more about him/herself.
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Title: Change; Principles of Problem Formation and Problem Resolution by Paul Watzlawick, John H. Weakland, Richard Fisch ISBN: 0393011046 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: March, 1988 List Price(USD): $22.50 |
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Title: The Language of Change: Elements of Therapeutic Communication by Paul Watzlawick ISBN: 0393310205 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: July, 1993 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Pragmatics of Human Communication: A Study of Interactional Patterns, Pathologies, and Paradoxes by Paul Watzlawick ISBN: 0393010090 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: March, 1967 List Price(USD): $27.00 |
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Title: How Real Is Real? by Paul Watzlawick ISBN: 0394722566 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 12 January, 1977 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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Title: The Ever-Transcending Spirit : The Psychology of Human Relationships, Consciousness, and Development by Toru Sato ISBN: 0595290043 Publisher: iUniverse, Inc. Pub. Date: 11 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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