The Optimistic Child: A Proven Program to Safeguard Children Against Depression and Build Lifelong Resilience

Written by Martin E. P. Seligman

Narrated by Paul Costanzo

In The Optimistic Child, Dr. Martin E. P. Seligman offers parents, teachers, and coaches a well-validated program to prevent depression in children. In a thirty-year study, Seligman and his colleagues discovered the link between pessimism—dwelling on the most catastrophic cause of any setback—and depression. Seligman shows adults how to teach children the skills of optimism that can help them combat depression, achieve more on the playing field and at school, and improve their physical health.



As Seligman states in his afterword for this edition, "Teaching children optimism is more, I realized, than just correcting pessimism. . . . It is the creation of a positive strength, a sunny but solid future-mindedness that can be deployed throughout life—not only to fight depression and to come back from failure, but also to be the foundation of success and vitality."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Dec 20, 2016
• ISBN: 9781515986294

Martin E. P. Seligman

El doctor Martin E.P. Seligman, profesor de Psicología en la Universidad de Pensilvania, investiga desde hace quince años los campos de la psicología positiva, la indefensión aprendida, la depresión, los conflictos etnopolíticos y el optimismo. El trabajo del doctor Seligman ha recibido el apoyo del Instituto Nacional de Salud Mental, la Fundación Nacional para la Ciencia, la Fundación Guggenheim, la Fundación Mellon y la Fundación MacArthur. Es director de la Red de Psicología Positiva y director científico de Foresight, Inc. Durante catorce años fue director del Programa de Formación Clínica de la Universidad de Pensilvania y fue nombrado «profesional distinguido» por las Academias Nacionales de Práctica. En 1995 la Asociación de Psicología de Pensilvania lo premió por sus «aportaciones cruciales a la Ciencia y a la Práctica.» Es autor devarios ensayos, entre ellos Optimismo aprendido y La auténtica felicidad, este último publicado por Ediciones B.

Reviews for The Optimistic Child

[Eduardoyesyesyes · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Highly recommended reading for everyone who takes care of children, very useful for the so-called child protection centers, which are actually true surveillance or parking centers for children. (Translated from Spanish)

[erikahope-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is fascinating. Yes, I'm reading it for my son, but generally speaking it discusses how feeling that you have some power over your situation, can alter things, can overcome things, mixed with the actual accomplishment of this at least part of the time (which requires learning how to bounce back after rejection/failure) leads to an overall belief in yourself and in a fulfilling life that you can make for yourself if you don't get discouraged. Still, I absolutely believe that inborn tendencies can make it much much harder for some people to have this "glass half full" attitude and that doesn't even get into chemical imbalances and such. Still for a non drug answer to giving your child ways to cope with life, this has been worth my free reading time. Resilience is key because life just sucks sometimes.

[sandra305 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I liked the sound principles discussed and demonstrated in this book, and I was relieved to see that we are moving away from the Self-Esteem Movement where individuals were praised regardless of their behavior. Under those circumstances, praise becomes meaningless and children move toward an attitude of entitlement. For the last decade the term "consequence" has been considered to be politically incorrect, but there are consequences to everything we do--either positive consequences or negative consequences. I found Dr. Seligman's book to be both refreshing and sound. Highly Recommended!