Includes reader's guide.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 241-303).

Preface -- 1. Happiness Revisited -- Introduction -- Overview -- The Roots of Discontent -- The Shields of Culture -- Reclaiming Experience -- Paths of Liberation -- 2. The Anatomy of Consciousness -- The Limits of Consciousness -- Attention as Psychic Energy -- Enter the Self -- Disorder in Consciousness : Psychic Entropy -- Order in Consciousness : Flow -- Complexity and the Growth of the Self -- 3. Enjoyment and the Quality of Life -- Pleasure and Enjoyment -- The Elements of Enjoyment -- The Autotelic Experience -- 4. The Conditions of Flow -- Flow Activities -- Flow and Culture -- The Autotelic Personality -- The People of Flow -- 5. The Body in Flow -- Higher, Faster, Stronger -- The Joys of Movement -- Sex as Flow -- The Ultimate Control : Yoga and the Martial Arts -- Flow through the Senses : The Joys of Seeing -- The Flow of Music -- The Joys of Tasting -- 6. The Flow of Thought -- The Mother of Science -- The Rules of the Games of the Mind -- The Play of Words -- Befriending Clio -- The Delights of Science -- Loving Wisdom -- Amateurs and Professionals -- The Challenge of Lifelong Learning -- 7. Work as Flow -- Autotelic Workers -- Autotelic Jobs -- The Paradox of Work -- The Waste of Free Time -- 8. Enjoying Solitude and Other People -- The Conflict between Being Alone and Being with Others -- The Pain of Loneliness -- Taming Solitude -- Flow and the Family -- Enjoying Friends -- The Wider Community -- 9. Cheating Chaos -- Tragedies Transformed -- Coping with Stress -- The Power of Dissipative Structures -- The Autotelic Self : A Summary -- 10. The Making of Meaning -- What Meaning Means -- Cultivating Purpose -- Forging Resolve -- Recovering Harmony -- The Unification of Meaning in Life Themes -- Notes -- References.

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.