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Understanding Psychology Essay I chose Karen Salmansohn and Don Zindell’s How to be Happy, Dammit (2001) primarily because of the title’s first impression upon me—it did not appear to be a conventional self help book that took itself seriously. A lot of people seem to resent the idea of reading self-help books and this book seem to be geared exactly towards those types, and I was intrigued as to what this book has to offer. The graphics also looked appealing as well as the book’s unusual dimensions. Of course, I also considered that I should get something for myself when reading a book to review, the title suggests that the author is somewhat more intelligent (or at least uses a more intelligent approach) than the run-of-the-mill self-help author. The book’s thesis is that a person (the cynic) can become happy by deciding to become happy. The book asserts that a person must maintain a rational mind and must make active decisions (and not just passively wait for life’s pseudo random events) to directly affect his state of mind. She supports this by bringing on forty-something life lessons that, viewed with the proper perspective, actually makes sense. The author tries to avoid the usual, drawn-out cliches by referencing various areas. It is peppered with witty remarks and draws inspiration from a number of different fields such as psychology, pharmaceuticals, biology, math, mountain climbing, even Bazooka Joe’s wisdom: â€Å"Never compromise your dreams†. It really isn’t that she’s saying something new, but she has a refreshing approach to some old ideas. The writer affects a whimsical, familiar tone that makes for very easy reading. It was an easy read, taking me just about an hour to finish, and would perhaps qualify as a coffee-table book, but is something really thought-provoking. She has a decent sense of humor and doesn’t seem to take herself seriously, but at the same time sounds sincere. She creates spoofs of famous and familiar lines to drive her points across, like stressing that one should have â€Å"Great Non-Expectations†, or that one should possess â€Å"the power in: I Think Therefore I Have†. The Psychological theory may be that emotions can be directly affected by the conscious decisions that a person makes. Akin to the idea that just as being happy makes a person smile, smiling can also make an unhappy person a bit happier. By being a rational being, as in Carl Jung’s conjecture one who controls his actions by thinking (Morris 340), one would, as the author puts it, attain the â€Å"secret to happiness. † Another life lesson in the book that illustrates this is the assertion that one could always choose how he projects his feelings toward life, that we always have a choice. Life is a series of random events, but we can control what direction we’re going (or at least we can control our feelings, no matter what the circumstances. ) The books intended audience is the unhappy disillusioned crowd, those who abhor and cringe at the thought of reading self-help books. The book has, on some level, given me ideas, or at least made a concrete illustration of ideas that have always been afloat in my mind in some vague form. Luck is, ironically, something you can create, and that life must be lived now. I would recommend this book to someone who is jaded or seems to have lost hope being happy. It won’t take long to read, and whoever’s reading it could sure appreciate the humor. It may or may not prove to be the key to ultimate happiness but it would at least make a fun and interesting read. Works Cited Morris, Charles G. and Albert A. Maisto. Understanding Psychology. Upper Sadle: Prentice Hall, 2001. Salmansohn, Karen and Don Zindell. How to Be Happy, Dammit: A Cynics Guide to Spiritual Happiness. Berkeley: Celestial Arts, 2001.