Includes bibliographical references (p. 281-303).

Happiness revisited -- The anatomy of consciousness -- Enjoyment and the quality of life -- The conditions of flow -- The body in flow -- The flow of thought -- Work as flow -- Enjoying solitude and other people -- Cheating chaos -- The making of meaning.

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's famous investigations of "optimal experience" have revealed that what makes an experience genuinely satisfying is a state of consciousness called flow. During flow, people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and a total involvement with life. In this new edition of his groundbreaking classic work, Csikszentmihalyi demonstrates the ways this positive state can be controlled, not just left to chance. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience teaches how, by ordering the information that enters our consciousness, we can discover true happiness and greatly improve the quality of our lives.