Includes reader's guide.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 241-303).

Preface -- 1. Happiness revisited -- Introduction -- Overview -- The roots of discontent -- The shields of culture -- Reclaiming experience -- Paths of liberation -- 2. The anatomy of consciousness -- The limits of consciousness -- Attention as psychic energy -- Enter the self -- Disorder in consciousness : psychic entropy -- Order in consciousness : flow -- Complexity and the growth of the self -- 3. Enjoyment and the quality of life -- Pleasure and enjoyment -- The elements of enjoyment -- The autotelic experience -- 4. The conditions of flow -- Flow activities -- Flow and culture -- The autotelic personality -- The people of flow -- 5. The body in flow -- Higher, faster, stronger -- The joys of movement -- Sex as flow -- The ultimate control : yoga and the martial arts -- Flow through the senses : the joys of seeing -- The flow of music -- The joys of tasting -- 6. The flow of thought -- The mother of science -- The rules of the games of the mind -- The play of words -- Befriending Clio -- The delights of science -- Loving wisdom -- Amateurs and professionals -- The challenge of lifelong learning -- 7. Work as flow -- Autotelic workers -- Autotelic jobs -- The paradox of work -- The waste of free time -- 8. Enjoying solitude and other people -- The conflict between being alone and being with others -- The pain of loneliness -- Taming solitude -- Flow and the family -- Enjoying friends -- The wider community -- 9. Cheating chaos -- Tragedies transformed -- Coping with stress -- The power of dissipative structures -- The autotelic self : a summary -- 10. The making of meaning -- What meaning means -- Cultivating purpose -- Forging resolve -- Recovering harmony -- The unification of meaning in life themes -- Notes -- References.