Books like Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being

01

Man's Search for Meaning

Viktor E. Frankl · Psychology

Man's Search for Meaning is Viktor Frankl's account of his years as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz, and the psychological theory he developed from that experience.

02

Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life

Martin E. P. Seligman · Psychology

Martin Seligman's research career began with learned helplessness — the discovery that animals and humans who experience uncontrollable events generalize the uncontrollability to subsequent situations where control is actually possible, becoming passive even when action would help.

03

The Happiness Hypothesis

Jonathan Haidt · Psychology

Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist at NYU who spent the early part of his career studying morality and happiness, and this book — published in 2006, before his work on political psychology brought him wider attention — synthesizes ancient philosophical wisdom with modern psychological research.

04

Stumbling on Happiness

Daniel Gilbert · Psychology

Daniel Gilbert is a Harvard psychologist whose central finding, after decades of studying affective forecasting, is that humans are systematically wrong about what will make them happy.

05

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi · Psychology

Flow is Csikszentmihalyi's landmark study of optimal experience — those moments when people are so deeply absorbed in an activity that time warps, self-consciousness disappears, and effort feels effortless.

06

100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

Susan Weinschenk · Psychology

Susan Weinschenk is a behavioral scientist and UX consultant, and this book is her translation of cognitive science research into practical guidance for designers.