Cloninger, a distinguished US psychiatrist, starts this book with the question, 'why is it so difficult to be happy'? He is critical of conventional scientific psychiatry's approach to the answer to this question, and throughout the book invokes concepts which science finds it difficult to grapple with - like 'coherence'. He ranges with profound insight widely over philosophy and history plus many other sciences, including mathematics, to take an intelligent stab at the central problems of well-being.

• 1. A brief philosophy of well-being ; 2. The search for an adequate psychology ; 3. The measurement and movement of human thought ; 4. The social psychology of transcendentalism ; 5. Psychophysical theories of contemplation ; 6. Psychophysiology of awareness ; 7. The epigenetic revolution ; 8. The irreductible triad of well-being ; Appendix: The Quantitative Measurement of Thought

Cloninger, a distinguished US psychiatrist, starts this book with the question, 'why is it so difficult to be happy'? He is critical of conventional scientific psychiatry's approach to the answer to this question, and throughout the book invokes concepts which science finds it difficult to grapple with - like 'coherence'. He ranges with profound insight widely over philosophy and history plus many other sciences, including mathematics, to take an intelligent stab at the central problems of well-being.

• 1. A brief philosophy of well-being ; 2. The search for an adequate psychology ; 3. The measurement and movement of human thought ; 4. The social psychology of transcendentalism ; 5. Psychophysical theories of contemplation ; 6. Psychophysiology of awareness ; 7. The epigenetic revolution ; 8. The irreductible triad of well-being ; Appendix: The Quantitative Measurement of Thought

Cloninger, a distinguished US psychiatrist, starts this book with the question, 'why is it so difficult to be happy'? He is critical of conventional scientific psychiatry's approach to the answer to this question, and throughout the book invokes concepts which science finds it difficult to grapple with - like 'coherence'. He ranges with profound insight widely over philosophy and history plus many other sciences, including mathematics, to take an intelligent stab at the central problems of well-being.

• 1. A brief philosophy of well-being ; 2. The search for an adequate psychology ; 3. The measurement and movement of human thought ; 4. The social psychology of transcendentalism ; 5. Psychophysical theories of contemplation ; 6. Psychophysiology of awareness ; 7. The epigenetic revolution ; 8. The irreductible triad of well-being ; Appendix: The Quantitative Measurement of Thought