Feeling Good

Self-help

Print length: 706 pagesAvon Books, 1999

Description

Feeling Good presents a cognitive approach to depression, anxiety, guilt, pessimism, procrastination, and low self-esteem. David D. Burns explains how automatic thoughts and habitual interpretations can intensify painful moods, then offers exercises for identifying, testing, and answering those patterns. The techniques translate principles of cognitive behavioral therapy into self-assessments and practical routines that readers can apply to everyday setbacks, avoidance, and self-criticism. Burns emphasizes changing the relationship between thought and mood without relying exclusively on medication, while the updated edition includes an introduction to treatment choices and a guide to antidepressants. The book functions as both an explanation of cognitive therapy and a structured workbook for readers seeking concrete ways to understand emotional distress.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Conversational · Direct · Technical

Pace

Measured

Tone

Cerebral · Earnest · Hopeful

Structure

Argumentative

Focus

Argument · Ideas · Information

Emotional intensity

4 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 3 / 5
Ideas: 3 / 5
Structure: 3 / 5
Background knowledge: 2 / 5

Themes

Knowledge and truthMental healthTransformation

About David D. Burns

David D. Burns is an American psychiatrist and author whose books helped bring cognitive behavioral therapy to a broad readership. An adjunct professor emeritus at Stanford University School of Medicine, he has written research studies and book chapters as well as popular psychology books. His characteristic method is to turn clinical concepts into structured self-observation and practice. Feeling Good explains how automatic thoughts and habitual interpretations can intensify depression, anxiety, guilt, and low self-esteem, while The Feeling Good Handbook and Ten Days to Self-Esteem extend that approach through inventories, thought records, rating scales, and written exercises. Across these works, distress becomes something readers can examine in precise steps, test against evidence, and address through repeated practice. Burns has also criticized the design and reporting of antidepressant research, focusing on placebo controls, assessment tools, adverse-effect recording, and publication bias. His work combines accessible explanation with procedural rigor and close attention to how psychiatric claims are measured.

Book details

For the print edition listed above.

Publisher: Avon Books
Language: English
ISBN: 9780380810338

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