We can change ourselves for the better. We can employ safe, effective self-help techniques. We can profit from various therapies. We can unlearn certain damaging behaviors. We can be helped by new medications. We can extend our lives. There is much that we can do for ourselves (in some cases alone, in more serious cases with professional help) in areas ranging from diet to anxiety to addiction - as long as we don't tragically waste our energies, our courage, and our incomes on attempting what is impossible.
To help us recognize what we can change and what we can't, and to guide us along the way to genuine self-improvement, the distinguished psychologist Martin Seligman speaks to us - clearly, simply, realistically, and on the basis of the latest and most trustworthy scientific information. He shows us, for example: the most effective known treatments - relaxation and meditation - for everyday anxiety; how panic can be cured with cognitive therapy and why medication often cannot be effective; how "natural weight" techniques - a concept the author introduces in this book - succeed, and why the thousand and one diets we have all tried almost always fail; why (and how) certain types of depression can be cured by working with conscious thought; what types of direct sex therapy can readily correct various sexual dysfunctions; why phobias cannot be treated by psychoanalysis, and two behavior therapies that work at least 70 percent of the time; which kinds of alcoholics can - and which cannot - be helped by Alcoholics Anonymous; and the best self-help tactics for counteracting the three phases of anger (thought, bodily reaction, attack).
Whatever the psychological or physical change you want to make in yourself, the author first tells you if it is possible, and then shows you how to proceed if it is - and protects you from the heartbreak of attempting the impossible. Here at last is a completely realistic - and therefore effective - approach to self-improvement.

Martin E. Seligman, Ph.D., is Kogod Professor and Director of Clinical Training in Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.