Tatjana Bujakas read for us the book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
“This famous book has finally been translated in Russia. In it, the American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi described the state of “flow” that he discovered – that is, complete involvement and merging with one’s work, which we experience as happiness, joy, pleasure. Each of us experienced it in childhood, selflessly playing something. And now we experience the flow from time to time, not really understanding what is happening to us at this moment and how we “got there”.
Three decades of research have convinced Csikszentmihalyi that the joy of flow can be experienced in almost any activity, even something as monotonous as washing dishes or working on a factory assembly line. Even in a difficult life situation associated, for example, with a severe injury, a person can learn to enjoy life.
It’s all about the ability to concentrate attention, set achievable goals for yourself, giving meaning to each of your specific cases, and make the necessary efforts. And all this, the author writes, can be learned.
The flow helps to cope with loneliness, stress, helps to survive the age crisis without loss. However, the psychologist also warns against the addiction that a state of involvement, joy and a sense of control over the situation can cause – you want to experience it again and again. Surgeons, for example, say that complex operations can be as addictive as heroin.
Teenage crime – car theft, vandalism – the author also connects in many respects with the need to experience a state of flow that is inaccessible to grown-up children by other means. An even greater danger could be the “trap of perverted goals”: the state of the flow, according to the author, could also be experienced by the Nazis, killing prisoners as effectively as possible.
“Flow, like other forms of energy, is itself neutral,” writes Csikszentmihalyi. “It can be used for constructive purposes and for destruction.”
How to be able to organize yourself – at work and at leisure, as well as in relationships with other people, in order to ensure the flow and learn to live a full meaningful life – Csikszentmihalyi dedicated his book to this.
About the author of the book
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi – American psychologist, professor at Claremont University. His bestseller Flow: the Psychology of Optimal Experience was first published in New York in 1990. The second part, Finding Flow, was written by him in 1998 and has just been published by Alpina Non-Fiction. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. MEANING, ALPINA NON-FIXION, 461 p.