This might be the only (so-called) self-help book that includes a quote from The Wire at the beginning of a chapter -- and surely that's a good sign.

I'm not someone who reads a lot of self-help books. I don't read them at all, really, though living in Southern California for a couple decades meant inevitable contact with self-help gurus and enthusiasts. Positive thinking, visualization and imitating the habits of successful people have always struck me as somehow deficient tactics but I never re More...

OK - So I will admit I picked this up because of my cynicism. I'm just not one of those "happy" people that are all the rage right now.

I kept reading because this book is so much more. How wonderfully validating this book was. (That is why we read self-help books, right? Not to change, but to validate who we are.) At some point I had realized that while I'm not one of the "happy' type, I am a content person when I'm not feeling bad about myself for not being "happy." The constant pressure to be More...

What if everything we’ve been taught about obtaining happiness is wrong? Is our “constant effort to be happy” counterintuitive? Instead, should we “embrace failure, pessimism, insecurity, and uncertainty?” These are the questions Oliver Burkeman explores in The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking.

I spend a good chunk of my working day encouraging sixth grade students to look on the bright side. After all, I ask them, what’s the use of drowning in misery? I often expl More...

This book is well researched study of a counter-intuitive approach to happiness. The author traces through history, from the Greek philosophers, to modern thinkers that have evolved the perspectives once promulgated by the 'Stoics'. That it requires one to fully embrace, and become one with, anything that is truly negative in our lives -- thus revealing what is truly and most valuable in our lives, hence happiness? He delves into the current and well promoted speaker tour money machine of 'posi More...

I loved this book for the way it exposes the weakness of too much positive thinking and planning and the benefits of embracing uncertainty and developing the ability to slightly distance oneself from one's thoughts and from events and understand that our emotions come from our reactions rather than the events or thoughts themselves. There is nothing new here, but the pendulum has definitely swung to far in favour of positivity and Burkeman is right to call it.

I think I like these arguments becau More...

The first chapter of this book is titled "On Trying Too Hard to Be Happy", which basically sums up what this book is about. We have all at some point of our lives attended motivation workshops and seminars, read self-help motivation books, where the common theme is often to teach us to think positively, to reject the word "impossible" from our vocabulary, and to subscribe to a "cult of optimism". Despite all these and a thriving happiness industry has not been sufficient to engender national hap More...

The Antidote starts off by talking about the positive thinking movement, moves on to Seneca and the Stoics then dips into Buddhist meditation, pauses to to criticize goal setting then stops in for a visit with Eckhart Tolle. Burkeman then writes about how we overvalue safety and undervalue failure then ends with a chapter on how we approach death, including an interesting visit to Mexico on the Day of the Dead.

Every chapter is well written and provides sufficient insight into each of the various More...

It might seem odd that a self-confessed positive thinker would even consider reading this book whose sub title proclaims it is a book about `Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking'. But I've read it and enjoyed it and from its pages have compiled a list of further reading. The book is written in an easy conversational style and I found the author's experiences and meetings with the gurus of the self help world fascinating reading.

I was interested to learn that my own brand of pos More...

In spite of its title, this is not a happiness-for-sourpusses-howto book. It's unfortunate that the title is so misleading, as I imagine a lot of people will avoid the book over this minor misdirection.

The book is more of a cautionary tale for folks that are motivated by 'positive thinking' (cue Stuart Smiley: "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggonit, people like me."). I could go into the specifics of how the book does this but I'd end up copying the entire book into this review. Really More...

Britisher Burkeman starts his psychological exploration of happiness at a Get Motivated! jamboree where an alarmingly orangey-tanned octogenarian pumps his fist in the air and exhorts the audience to "Cut the word IMPOSSIBLE out of your life forever." Burkeman is unconvinced that this and other bright-sided positive thinking messages actually work - and his subsequent research backs this up. People wind up feeling worse about themselves, psychologists have shown, when they try to apply affirmati More...

What an unusual little book this is. It's equal parts journalism and unconventional self-help. The opening chapter of this book takes place at the Get Motivated! seminar, where participants learn to eliminate the word impossible from their vocabularies. Keynote speaker for this conference? Noted optimist and former president George W. Bush. Burkeman reports live from the scene, a cranky Brit in a room full of delirious Americans. Much of the humor in this book derives from Burkeman's willingness More...

This might be my favorite self-help book of all time. In a nutshell, rather than trying to force ourselves to be cheerful when we don't feel cheerful by thinking positively, it suggests we think of the worst thing that can happen and realize that whatever that worst thing is, it isn't likely to be the end of the world. On procrastination, it suggests we stop trying to feel motivated and just do what we have to do--moods and actions don't have to be related. On goals, it explores whether goal str More...

I had never read the author's articles in the Guardian, but might start doing so after reading this book. I appreciate that this the work of a journalist and not a self-help guru. Remember that a journalist is some one who gets paid money to do things that you might like to do for free if the consequences didn't seem overwhelming. If you read The Antidote in that light then it is a very interesting and thoughtful look into metacognition and the self help industry. The book is not academic, and i More...

The Antidote: Happiness for people who can't stand positive thinking, by Oliver Burkeman, is a challenging, but ultimately liberating discussion on the virtues of the "backward path" to happiness. The author begins by exploring the short comings of the modern-day fixation on positive thinking. The message extolled by self-help gurus and mainstream motivational literature entreats us to eliminate negativity from our consciousness, to coordinate our activities around a set of clearly defined goals More...

I picked up The Antidote because I've always been a touch snarky. The title really appealed to me. I read some reviews saying this was nothing like the typical self-help book, but rather a critique of self-help books, in general. Those reviews appealed to me, too. So I picked up a copy to see what Burkeman was all about.

The title turned out to be cute, but the ideas espoused by Burkeman were serious. Progressing through centuries of philosophy, his aim was to show how actually being negative -- More...

This book may sound as though it had been written by something of a curmudgeon, but---far from it---it is a witty, sparkling foray into ideas about what makes us happy. The author, a writer for "The Guardian" (a British newspaper), explores psychology in his weekly columns. The chapters in this book look at finding contentment from the perspective of Stoicism, Buddhism, setting goals (or not), moving your focus outside of yourself, not seeking after security, recognizing your mistakes and weakne More...

You must know at least one of these: a friend or relative who is constantly reading some self-help book on "Positive Thinking" and won't stop repeating sound-bites of "banishing doubt" and "killing negativity", or is always on the tour trail of a well-known motivation speaker and gobbles everything up as he fires up his audience into optimism and goal-oriented thinking.

And if you know deep inside that there's something very wrong with the way they are going about it, chances are you'll agree wit More...

An excellent overview of what might be called realist perspectives, including a better description of the "point" of Buddhism, from an emotional disposition, than I've read from any Buddhist author.

We aren't used to thinking along these lines because the only choices we've been given are optimist/pessimist, happy/sad, glass half empty or half full. As the late George Carlin said, "the glass is too #@$%^& big". Less colorfully put, if I set it down after drinking until I was no longer thirsty More...

Full Disclosure I won this book as a Goodreads Firstreads. The thing is though, I entered the contest because I read the summary and immediately laughed because hand to god this book was almost exactly a conversation I was having with a good friend recently. Basically we were talking about how we find the whole "self-help" thing boring. My problems (not that I have any, obviously) do not stem from me not having any faith in my ability to get through things, so why do I need to wake up everyday a More...

This review refers to an uncorrected and unpublished proof copy, provided by Penguin Group (Canada) through the Goodreads Giveaways program.

The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking is described as “a self-help book for people who hate self-help books”. I’ll admit, I’m probably the ideal reader for this kind of book. I do hate self-help books. The problem is, I hate self-help books enough that if The Antidote were to be found only in the self-help section of the book s More...

After reading several books on positive thinking, and realising how focused society has become on positive thinking and the rejection of failure, this book was a breath of fresh air.

It definitely changed the way I think about things by offering several different perspectives, and it delivered a solid argument on the benefits of an alternative 'negative' path to happiness (one that isn't so focussed on positive thinking and banishing negative thoughts).

I also thought the author's take on motiva More...

It's such a turnoff with self-help books that start out with ridiculing self-helps books only to try to paint themselves in a different light. Turnoff and common, that is. This book is no different. It becomes especially obnoxious when the author denounces other authors lack of rigor only to himself use ancient Greek philosophy and Alan Watts as backbones to his arguments. Now, stoicism and Buddhist metaphysics are favorite subjects of mine. My problem with the book is not lack of rigor but the More...

This is a friendly little book that purports to be an anti-"self-help" book - although I have more than a sneaking suspicion that it IS a self-help book. My guess is that Oliver Burkeman is preaching to the choir, to use an old cliché, because I doubt any individual feeling the rosy after-glow of a Get Motivated! seminar will pick it up for an afternoon's reading. I bought the thing after reading a review in the Los Angeles Times, thinking it would offer a humorous take on our cultural obsession More...

This is a book for those of us who find so-called 'positive thinking' at best irritating and, at worst, sinister. If you follow my blog, you will know that I have already written about the positive psychology industry, which I believe relies on banal platitudes, unscientific claims and extreme individualistic notions of happiness and success.

Burkeman is a Guardian feature writer whose Saturday magazine 'This Column Will Change Your Life' has a popular following. Having immersed himself in the Se More...

Antidote is a clear and concise discussion of "negative path" philosophical traditions. Burkeman begins by attacking what he calls the "cult of positive thinking," revisiting it throughout the book as appropriate to point out some of its flaws. On this front, perhaps the most compelling example is the "museum of failed products," which often surprises visitors from major companies by showing them that projects they are working on now have not only failed before, but failed before at their very c More...

This book is part of a continual diet of stoic philosophy, I am hoping it will eventually sink in and become instinctual. So yeah, though Burkeman didn't necessarily go into much depth, it was a good reminder that its our judgment of the situation that warps us out of shape and not the situation itself. I have plenty of opportunities in life to practice detachment; to be stoic during those times I normally would be screaming and contorted with road rage, over things that might cost me a mere min More...

Stoicism, Buddhism, and negative capability, several different worlds of philosophy, all reflect a realistic, accepting perspective that lead to a benign relationship to one's existence. From Epictetus to Tolle, those who have declined to chase happiness are those that find it. Embrace uncertainty, mortality, and helplessness, and you will truly overcome the trap of desire.

Martha Nussbaum, on philosophical uncertainty: "To be good human, is to have a kind of openness to the world, an ability to More...

Memento mori. “The psychologist Russ Harris suggests a simple exercise: imagine you are 80 years old – older if you are already 80 – and then complete the sentences ‘I wish I’d spent more time on … ‘ and I wish I’d spent less time on … ‘ This turns out to be a surprisingly effective way to achieve mortality awareness in short order. Things fall in place. It becomes far easier to follow Lauren Tillinghast’s advice – to figure out what, specifically, you might do in order to focus on life’s flavou More...

"The antidote" is exactly what it claims to be:an antidote to the "cult of optimism" (i like that phrase)
See where blindly following rules leads to the opposite or success.

Together with books like drive from Daniel Pink you can understand more clearly where "Motivate" "dont' try do" or "everything is possible, only your mind limits your success" fails.

I don't agree to everything, but the author does view the topic from many sides. So with the good source appendix you can see for yourself what id More...

If it was possible to rate this book as no stars I would. Don't get me wrong, the author has had a good idea. It does no harm to look at negative things that happen, or even death to change the way you look at your life and the path ahead. It would have made a great magazine article which would have been interesting. However, the author has tried to pad out this good idea with condescendingly chatty personal observations ( including the weather at the time of interviews) and mentioning famous ph More...