Books by Paul Pearsall

“This is an amazing book that sketches out some alternatives to the very shallow and impractical positive-thinking approach to happiness. Paul Pearsall was a maverick psychologist who lived in Hawaii. He died a few years ago. His book takes as its organising idea the notion that true happiness requires plenty of the emotion that he calls awe. He writes: ‘The best description I’ve been able to give it so far is that – no matter how good or bad our brain considers whatever is happening to be – it is feeling more totally and completely alive than we thought possible before we were in awe.’ It’s an emotion that combines negativity and positivity, and that even has an element of fear in it, of not being completely in control of a situation.” Read more...

The best books on Happiness Through Negative Thinking

Oliver Burkeman, Journalist