Feelings and Moods
1. Auflage September 2012
300 Seiten, Hardcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
Happiness, sadness, compassion, resentment, despair: just some
of the feelings and moods that characterize the lives of each one
of us. They are part and parcel of our everyday lives and
they affect everything we do, like a kind of mental climate that
surrounds and permeates our activities and thoughts. But what
exactly are these ever-present feelings and moods?
Here the leading psychiatrist Christophe André analyses
feelings and moods as the contents of consciousness that mix
together emotions and thoughts, the background sensations and
impressions that are less intense than primary emotions like anger
but longer lasting and more influential - a slight feeling of
guilt can poison the entire day. Their impact is more
comprehensive because they owe their existence not to a particular
situation or event that triggers them but rather to our
relationship with the world in general.
Drawing on his own practice as a psychiatrist, André
explores some of the most important feelings and moods and shows
how, by understanding them better, we can achieve a calmer, happier
and more fulfilling life.
Written in the fresh and accessible style that has won him a
large international following, Feelings and Moods will
appeal to a wide readership.
A little girl falls over
PART ONE
Existence
Chapter 1 - Feelings and moods: towards understanding
Chapter 2 - Feelings and moods: the pain and the pleasure
Chapter 3 - Rumination and losing control
Chapter 4 - Introspection
PART TWO
Suffering
Chapter 5 - Painful feelings and moods
Chapter 6 - Anxieties
Chapter 7 - Resentment
Chapter 8 - Sadness
Chapter 9 - Despair
Chapter 10 - Fragility
Chapter 11 - Calm and energy
Chapter 12 - Regulating feelings and moods
Chapter 13 - Curing ourselves of the disease of materialism
Chapter 14 - Living mindfully
Chapter 15 - Compassion, self-compassion and the power of gentleness
Chapter 16 - Happiness
Chapter 17 - Wisdom
Conclusion - See you tomorrow, life
Footnotes
Acknowledgments
such a rhapsodic, poetic, poignant and personally honest way about
such quintessentially human experiences as feelings and moods
- energies which, while evanescent and subtle, run our lives
in ways it is very easy to ignore. This book illuminates the
very real possibility of authentic well-being and happiness for
each of us, right here and now, without anything having to change,
however astonishing and improbable that proposition may
seem.'
Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of Mindfulness for Beginners and
Coming to Our Senses
'Moods establish the inner "weather" of the mind - perhaps
bright and sunny, or overcast and troubled - and with his
rare combination of head and heart, Christophe André shows
what creates this weather and how we can change it for the
better.'
Rick Hanson, author of Buddha's Brain: The Practical
Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom
'Christophe André leads us through a heartfelt encounter
with the ubiquity and complexity of emotional life. Take your
time reading his evocative prose and find yourself rewarded with a
new appreciation for how thoughts and feelings are foundational in
achieving greater satisfaction and purposefulness in your
life.'
Zindel Segal, University of Toronto