Book review: “Feeling good” by David Burns
February 6th, 2005 at 9:50 pmThe first thing I understood after reading this book for some time is that I don’t have depression. I never suspected I had, but this is still reassuring. From the stories Dr. Burns tells about his depressed patients, it’s good to know you’re not in the category.
And yet, this book is very helpful. Written in 1980 and now in a revised edition, it’s clearly “no bullshit” material. These days self-help authors generate 20 books from a single idea, but things weren’t always this way. There was Carneghie with his excellent books, and I gladly include “Feeling good” in the same category.
The author is a psychiatrist / researcher with years of experience, clinical, research and educational (teaching other mental-health specialists). In this book he presents several techniques to fight with low self esteem and netagive thoughts. He notes, very correctly in my opinion, that at the basis of one’s happinnes are one’s thoughts about himself. How a person perceives himself, judges himself “in his own eyes” is what really decides whether he’s happy or not. Sometimes a paradoxical notion, but the way our heads work inevitably leads to it. You may not be worth much in the eyes of people around you, but if you respect yourself you’re a happy human being. The reverse (you are respected by others but think you are a failure and have no right to be happy) is also true, and very unfortunately much more common.
Viewed from one angle, the techniques presented by Dr. Burns are numerous. But if you look really closer there are really quite the same – your negative mood results from your own thoughts. Not from external events – those are just triggers for the thoughts. Only your thoughts decide whether you’re cheerful or sad. Dr. Burns proposes to “fight” these thoughts by generating positive thoughts against them. I have one reservation, though. Methinks that this method works only on logical human beings. To reach the basic conclusions that you deserve to be happy just like everyone else has to stem from logical steps. (I’m not even sure there’s such a things as an illogical person…)
I really like this book, more than most other books I’ve read on the subject. I’d say even that it’s my second favorite – after “Stop worrying and start living” by Dale Carneghie, of course.
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May 6th, 2008 at 22:52
Three years gone since you wrote these words, I have a feeling I might as well skip my comment – but here goes;You say you are/were not depressed,then how can you praise the book as useful? (I even wonder why you spend time reading books (,and writing about them) you don`t need)Hopefully this will not be considered rudeness,Yours cincerely k.henriksen
May 10th, 2008 at 16:50
Kai:
Pardon the cliche, but not everything is black and white. If you want to define ‘depression’ precisely, it’s a disease caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. So I was certainly not depressed. More like ‘feeling blue’ – to which, you must agree, there are a lot of gradations.
December 30th, 2008 at 11:58
Awesome review! I’ve been scouring for good books on depression to add on to my list to be reviewed and that’s how I came to your site. Thanks for doing such a wonderful job. Even though the book’s old, I guess anything that gives the illness a unique prespective deserves to be recognized. It’ll definitely be on my list.
February 4th, 2009 at 10:04
Awesome review! I’ve been scouring for good books on depression to add on to my list to be reviewed and that’s how I came to your site. Thanks for doing such a wonderful job. Even though the book’s old, I guess anything that gives the illness a unique prespective deserves to be recognized. It’ll definitely be on my list.
November 3rd, 2009 at 20:30
Nice review. I just attended Dr. Burns’s two day training in Ann Arbor, MI and he’s just as sharp, funny and incisive as he was 20 years ago when I attended a similar workshop. He is a humble giant, and the techniques do work quite well, speaking as a clinician.
Ciao