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The Feeling Good Handbook (平装)
by David D. Burns
| Category:
Mental fitness, Self improvement, Self help |
| Market price: ¥ 258.00
MSL price:
¥ 248.00
[ Shop incentives ]
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| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
An excellent introduction to cognitive therapy and a great companion to Feeling Good. |
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AllReviews |
1 2   | Total 2 pages 11 items |
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Anthony Bates (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-08 00:00>
A wonderful achievement – the best in its class. |
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Albert Ellis (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-08 00:00>
Clear, systematic, forceful. |
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Jackie Persons (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-08 00:00>
This book makes a difference. Anyone who experiences emotional distress (that is, everyone) will find this book invaluable. Dr. Burns represents dozens of helpful exercises in his inimitable, lively, and self-revealing style. |
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Marvin Goldfried (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-08 00:00>
Dr. Burns has done it again. He has provided us with clearly described and practical guidelines for dealing with fears, anxieties, panic attacks, procrastination, and communication problems… invaluable. |
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Richard Singer (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-08 00:00>
Definitely a useful companion to go along with the basic text. Sincerely and consistently practice the principles within these books and your life will change. Never give in to the despair of depression, it is an evil that can be conquered on a daily basis with persistence and courage. I personally know about the hell of depression, and also know that there is a way through it. Highly recommended. |
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An American reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-08 00:00>
This is a crucial book to evaluate for those suffering from depression but skeptical of the effectiveness of most psychologists and self-help books.
Burns is one of the biggest popularizers of cognitive-behavioral therapy, one of extremely few therapeutic forms that have stood up to any scientific scrutiny. Over the last 20 years, CBT has become the predominant form of therapy practiced by psychologists. This book is intensive CBT, much more involving and direct than the form practiced in most psychologists' offices.
Burns takes a very simple approach: he does not place any weight on diagnostic categories or figuring out "why" people behave the way they do or the roots of their problems. Instead, every depressed thought is traced to irrational thought processes. Why those thought processes were developed is irrelevant; the challenge is identifying one's distortions and learning to think more rationally.
Contrary to some reviewers' opinions, I believe this book is best for people who have long-term depression in the medium range (recurrent major depression or dysthymia), with substantial experiences with psychologists. Clearly for more extreme cases - a manic depressive or a suicidal person - the first course of action should be a psychiatrist or psychologist, not a self-help book. This book requires a very high level of involvement and personal responsibility. I believe that it is patients who think of themselves as having a medical problem, seeing psychologists and taking medication for years and perhaps feeling dependent on them, who will at some crisis point become frustrated, develop the energy and motivation to work through a book like this and benefit the most from it.
Patients with more minor depression will not feel sufficiently motivated to actually do the exercises, which take a substantial amount of time and clash with other life priorities.
CBT encourages short-term (only 12 weeks on average if seeing a psychologist!) therapy and extreme personal responsibility. For most problems, I believe CBT, either in the form of this book or combined with short-term therapy, is much better than seeing a psychologist long-term. Long-term psychotherapy without very clear goals strongly encourages dependence on the psychologist or medication and reinforces the idea that one is permanently ill. This dependence produces further irrational thinking and can very easily lead to continual depression. Reading a book like this and doing its exercises is an exercise in independence and self-reliance and a major accomplishment in itself. The ability to solve one's own problems is difficult to achieve but extremely powerful - perhaps the only solution - for relieving long-term depression.
Burns feels that virtually no one should be on medication long-term - more than about a year - a view that is somewhat debatable (he excludes, obviously, bipolar and schizophrenic patients). The long-term effectiveness of SSRIs is unproven, but Burns' one-year limit seems purely arbitrary.
CBT is also more art than science - although anyone with any experience with psychologists or self-help books will realize that this is true of the entire field. Often Burns' methods and categorizations of irrational thoughts seem completely arbitrary and hardly authoritative. They could probably use more refinement and clarity. What I think is important is that CBT, and even simply reading Burns' book "Feeling Good", have been demonstrated through scientific means - double-blind testing - to produce considerable improvement.
All in all, this is a book with a clear philosophy that has stood up to scientific scrutiny, unlike psychoanalysis or most other therapeutic methods practiced by psychologists. It requires high involvement and emphasizes personal responsibility, and one has to develop considerable motivation to make any use of it. But the results can be extremely worthwhile. |
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David O’Brien (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-08 00:00>
I suffer from mild to moderate social anxiety and depression and have for my entire life. Recently my anxiety has increased to a point that I was going to start taking medication again. I really dislike all the side effects of the medication and as a last resort researched the web for natural anti anxiety solutions that do not have these horrible side effects. While doing this I found many positive references to the Feeling Good Handbook so I thought what could I lose and bought the book. I have been using the book for a little over a month now and I have easily reduced my anxiety from moderate to mild during that time. I am certain in the next six months I will be able to reduce it by as much again. I can not speak for others but for someone with mild to moderate anxiety and depression do not hesitate and start feeling better soon. Buy the book. |
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An American reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-08 00:00>
Hat's off to Dr. Burns for having written a very practical guide anyone can use to combat depression and build positive self esteem. For years I have been in therapy, but I have realized that positive change all comes down to me. Burns provides the simplistic, yet highly effective tools to work through one's distortions on a daily basis. As he emphasizes, merely reading the book will not help. It is reading, understanding, but most importantly, DOING the exercises on paper that will produce results. Burns writes at a gut level. I don't think there is one page that is useless or irrelevant. Most striking is the author's genuine compassion for the reader. He sincerely wants you to succeed! I have often found this lacking in most self-help books. Their authors seem more interested in giving the reader a one shot "pep- booster", but fail to provide exercises that will promote lasting results. I have read many self help books concerning depression and self esteem, but this particular one is the "leader of the pack" as far as I am concerned. Buy it, Read it and Do the exercises! |
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Todd Hecht (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-08 00:00>
The Feeling Good Handbook is a book that contains information that you are required to use on a consistent basis if you want to see positive results ... it is as useful as (if not better than) The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale. The cognitive approach has to be constantly used on a daily basis in order for the methods to work for you much like positive thinking. That's it in a nutshell. As with anything else. Once you stop using the cognitive approach you slip back into a depression and your old thoughts come back again. I gave the book four stars because it certainly works better then most approaches I have tryed in the past, and it works deeper then positive thinking alone because it penetrates your subconsious by cleaning out all the junk in your mind such as negative thinking, hostilities, bitterness, losses, etc. and reprograms your mind with new positive information and a new "thought" data base. I also gave the book a high mark because I think Dr. David Burns genuinely cares about people and he has excellent knowledge about human behavior, psychology, and theories which seem to work well when used on a consistent basis. I can never overemphasize that word strongly enough! Once again, it is like working out in a gym. In order to see results you have to keep exercising on a persistent basis, you have to stay on top of the therapy everyday and that can get very boring. You can only read the book so many times and use the information until you get bored with it or frustrated then you either go back to your old ways of thinking or you try something else. |
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Andreas Fellner (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-08 00:00>
This book clearly lines out principles and procedures of cognitive therapy. Readers will learn how to conquer depression, raise self-esteem and overcome anxiety.
The book contains many helpful self-help exercises which get to the heart of things. What I especially liked about this book is its applicability in real life. Apart from depression and anxiety you'll find information about giving good job interviews and procrastination.
But the greatest assets of the handbook are in my opinion the chapters about communication. Here, Burns clearly outlines how to deal with critical and angry people in a non-hurtful, but nonetheless authentic way. I greatly urge you to read this book, even when you've already read his first book "feeling good". The handbook contains some more useful information and applications. Apart from this, it's never wrong to get practice in disputing your dysfunctional thoughts.
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1 2 | Total 2 pages 11 items |
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