The Feeling Good Handbook
by David D. Burns
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Book Reviews of The Feeling Good Handbook
Book Review: A moderately effective course in cognitive therapy
Summary: 3 Stars
Many people don't buy into the whole "root of your problems" mentality that seems to infect the mental health fields nowadays. That's understandable. There certainly is something to be said for a more pragmatic, straightforward approach to the treatment of certain mental states. It is to this group of people that Dr. David Burns addresses his Feeling Good Handbook. The methods in The Feeling Good Handbook are aimed at helping those suffering from depression, anxiety, and other "mild" mental issues to train themselves into healthy mental patterns. Burns has put together a series of writing exercises and journaling that is intended to help readers recognize fallacies in their thought processes. He then spends a great deal of time on each of these fallacies of thought and how to overcome them.
Burns is an avid supporter of cognitive therapy. It is obvious that Burns feels the best way to mental health is through learning to master these negative thought processes. Furthermore, he states outright that it is possible to train yourself to be positive and happy by following these exercises.
Like most self-help books, Burns' popular book has both positive and negative attributes. Burns has managed to accurately classify the thought traps that those suffering from clinical depression and anxiety fall into. He also presents them in such a way that they are easily memorable and will often return to the reader's mind throughout the course of the day. Burns also includes a surprisingly accurate quiz to gauge the progress of the reader.
However, Burn's book depends very heavily on the reader following his instructions with exactness--and some of them are extremely tedious. This is, perhaps, not the best way to help those suffering with depression. Usually depression saps an individual of their desire to do anything at all. Additionally, Burns tends to be a little over-simplistic about his methods and even more over-enthusiastic about their results.
On its own, The Feeling Good Handbook is a moderately useful book in the amateur diagnosis and treatment of mild depression. When used in conjunction with a counselor who understands cognitive therapy, this book is an excellent tool in training the reader to think in a new way.
Book Review: Start to Feel Better about Your Life Today
Summary: 5 Stars
Cognitive Therapy is based on the premise that what you think determines how you feel. If you want to change how you feel, then change how you think. My introduction to Cognitive Therapy came from Dr. Burns' first book, Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy. It offers practical and powerful advice on treating depression without the use of drugs.
Burns' follow-up, The Feeling Good Handbook, offers a greater emphasis on application, and covers a wider range of problems than Dr. Burns' first book. He has expanded his treatment of such problems as perfectionism, procrastination, various anxiety disorders, and low self-esteem. There is even a chapter on how to use Cognitive Therapy to give more dynamic interviews!
But the biggest addition is the section on improving relationships through effective communication. Our thoughts can interfere with communication before we even open our mouths. When we feel good, communication tends to be easy. But what about when we are angry, or when we feel blamed or criticized? How well do we communicate then? According to Dr. Burns, "the key to intimacy, friendship, and success in business is the ability to handle conflict successfully." He explains the characteristics of bad communication and offers several effective techniques for improving communication in conflict situations. One of my favorite chapters is "How to Deal with Difficult People." I wish I'd learned these techniques twenty years ago!
Whether Cognitive Therapy is new to you or you've used it before, I recommend this book because of its emphasis on practical application. What Burns has given us with The Feeling Good Handbook is a comprehensive set of easy-to-understand exercises and tools to feel better about all areas of our lives. By emphasizing the paramount importance of using these tools, he makes it quite easy for the reader to start "feeling good."
(The Feeling Good Handbook is featured in the Turn On to Life! home-study course. The Turn On to Life! Free Newsletter features a new self-help book review each month.)
©2005 Curtis G. Schmitt / TurnOnToLife.com
Book Review: Effective and user-friendly tools
Summary: 5 Stars
In both this book and its predecessor ("Feeling Good"), David Burns has done an excellent job of putting tools into our hands so we can change the feelings and behaviors that we want to change. The tools in this book that I've found most helpful include (i) instruments to measure both anxiety and depression, (ii) a "pleasure-predicting sheet," (iii) a daily mood log to help identify and change unwanted feelings, and (iv) tools to help you overcome procrastination.I agree with another reviewer who said that this book and "Feeling Good" overlap to a great extent, and I recommend this one. You don't need to read "Feeling Good" first, and the worksheets in this "Handbook" are larger and easier to copy and work with.
While Dr. Burns uses tools from cognitive behavioral therapy, I strongly recommend that you also obtain "A Guide to Rational Living," by Albert Ellis. Dr. Ellis invented rational (cognitive) behavioral therapy in the mid-1950s and still writes, lectures, and works with clients. While Burns' books are generally better written than Ellis', Dr. Ellis teaches you how to use cognitive techniques more effectively than Dr. Burns does. Instead of just showing you how to recognize faulty thinking that produces unwanted feelings and behaviors and think of alternative thoughts, Dr. Ellis teaches you how to PERSUADE YOURSELF that this faulty thinking is both irrational and counter-productive. In my view, the difference in their approaches is similar to that between an intellectual discussion and a thoroughly persuasive speech. In order to make the desired changes, you need to convincingly and powerfully persuade yourself to change your thinking.
Together, this book and "A Guide to Rational Living" give you most all of the tools you need to experience the changes that you want in your feelings and behaviors. The approaches in both books require work. Passively reading them (or anything) will not lead to significant changes. The best news of all is this: There is hope! And you can have the tools at your fingertips.
Book Review: Well, I Got Some Good Results...But
Summary: 3 Stars
I suffer from severe depression. As did Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, and Charles Dickens. HA! I received an 8.5% drop in my depression by using this book for over a month. When I went into the library and looked at one of those fat medical texts not meant for you and me, it recommended "FEELING GOOD: THE NEW MOOD THERAPY" by David Burns. I looked up the ratings in newspapers and magazines. They loved "FEELING GOOD: THE NEW MOOD THERAPY" (NOT "The Feeling Good Handbook" which I am reviewing). Later, I checked the net. Right! You are learning! "FEELING GOOD: THE NEW MOOD THERAPY" by obscure obscure scientists who sit in university basements all day experimenting with their rats. HUMOR! You can't improve on perfection. And Burns, like other psychiatrists, has inadvertantly watered down the standard layman's text for psychiatric disorders. Yes! "Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy". He seems to get caught in digressions and "thought baloons" and all sorts of new gimmicks in this book. "Feeling Good" was very hard-hitting and direct. My warden recommended it to me. HUMOR! (I now refuse to use that STUPID smiley face or "LOL" anymore - I'm depressed. I just want to slug that smiley face. And NEVER say to me, "Have a Good Day!"). I would buy his first book. Come on. Give me the name. "Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy" and hang out with it only. Like you are stuck on an island with only one book to read. Don't dilute. Making ssomething BIGGER doesn't make it BETTER. My shrink and therapist (I have a whole football team) want me to go to a group where we "spot" our cognitive distortions for 2 HOURS! Yes ladies and gentlemen. Your friendly reviewer is one step away from the "funny farm". GOO-GOO. GA-GA. Buy this book. Seriously. Not this one. Once again. "Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy." Seriously. Good luckBook Review: Wrong Approach, Tedious, Irksome, Uninformative
Summary: 1 Stars
I really don't believe in the approach that this book has. At least it's not for me. Maybe some people need a lot of work in thinking correctly, but I don't think that I do. I've always tried to think correctly and rationally, which is why I am an atheist. I'm a big believer in science. I think this book is wrong because it prods you to examine your thinking, but doesn't give you knowledge. This is the same approach that a lot of therapists take. They get you to dwell on examining yourself and your thinking, but they don't give you any knowledge. This is really wrong. It just focuses you on your misery without giving you any answers or solutions. Not surprisingly, this book was recommended to me by a therapist. Lately I have read "Six Pillars of Self Esteem" and other psychology books which give you LOTS of information, all kinds of enlightenment and guidance about yourself, other people, the world, and how to live life well. THAT'S what I needed, not some stupid book telling me to work on hundreds of excruciatingly tedious exercises to show me how faulty my thinking is. I think therapists like this approach of not giving information to their patients because they don't want to cure their patients. They want their patients to focus on their problems without getting any solutions. This keeps them miserable and uncured, thus continuing to pay the therapist. This is mental torture. This is why I hate therapists. Of course you have to examine yourself first to see what your problems are, but then you need KNOWLEDGE. You need answers and solutions. That's what cognitive therapy doesn't give you. That's what therapists don't give you. And that is the wrong approach for the patient. If there was any faultiness in my thinking in the past, it was caused by a lack of knowledge, not because I'm a bad thinker. Now I have that knowledge I needed, from OTHER books, not this one. I find this book really annoying.