Dan Baker, PHD, is a medical psychologist dedicated to the study of human behavior within an organizational setting. For the last 20 years, he has carried out his research in the perfect laboratory--the world-renowned Canyon Ranch in Tucson, Arizona--where he was the founding director of the award-winning Life Enhancement Program. He is also the best-selling author of What Happy People Know and What Happy Companies Know.Cathy Greenberg, PhD, has held leadership positions at two of the world's most recognized consulting firms, CSC's Global Organizational Change Practice and the Accenture Institute for Strategic Change. She has traveled the globe through her work as an organizational consultant and executive coach. She is the coauthor of What Happy Companies Know.Ina Yalof is a writer with a background as a medical sociologist. She is the author or coauthor of 11 books. She teaches writing for Dartmouth College's ILEAD program.
Happiness is in many ways "gender specific," says Baker (What Happy People Know), because women's brains are wired to allow them to feel more, and more frequent, positive feelings than men. Baker, founding director of Canyon Ranch's Life Enhancement program, and Greenberg (What Happy Companies Know) draw on positive psychology to show women how to find happiness. Negative traps prevent women from achieving happiness, they say. These traps are easily recognizable: perfectionism, thinking you'll never be happy without a lot of money or a man, focusing on work as opposed to relationships. Happy women, on the other hand, have a sense of personal responsibility, the ability to find opportunity in adversity, a sense of purpose and courage. Writer Yalof helps make all this accessible, but many of these ideas are truisms, and the authors sometimes characterize women with facile generalizations, for example: "Most women don't know themselves well enough to determine what their special qualities are." Still, women who find themselves in one of the negative traps may find help here in learning how to look on the bright side. (July) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.
Clinical psychologist Baker, founder of the Life Enhancement programs at Canyon Ranch resorts, continues the theme of his previous book, What Happy People Know, this time addressing women. Using stories of his clients as illustrations, Baker looks at six common traps leading to unhappiness in women's lives (e.g., perfectionism, materialism, the desire to please, revenge, relationships, and career). Through positive psychology practices focusing on identifying and nurturing strengths, he demonstrates how lives can be and have been transformed. Throughout are maxims characteristic of happy women, e g., "Happy women understand that today is all we can be sure of, and they know how to make the most of it"; "Happy women know that good enough is good enough." Other chapters cover managing grief and loss and the mind-body connection between health and happiness. A concluding chapter outlines ten qualities of happy women, exemplified by accounts of women who personify these qualities. This inspirational self-help book is recommended for public libraries.-Lucille M. Boone, San Jose P.L., CA Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.