The book (Mihaly Csíkszentmihalyi: Flow – der Weg zum Glück, Der
Entdecker des Flow-Prinzips erklärt seine Lebensphilosophie, Herder Verlag
2012) was published by the German Herder publishing company and is not the same
as the books published in Hungarian with similar titles.
Many people live as
they have a lifelong ticket to reality. It makes them feel secure, and with this
knowledge they go to work, they have lunch and they pay their taxes. They live
according to controlled processes where nothing unexpected happens. Others who
do not have the same ticket are addicted to a passion which might seem useless
to others: they collect old stamps or they go fishing and they stand in the
ice-cold water for hours without catching anything. It seems that these
activities are good-for-nothing, still, they bring us closer to the experience
of ecstasy, explains the author (page 16.).
Through the pages of the book we can get an insight into the
childhood of Csíkszentmihályi. In the refugee camp in Italy, where he lived for
a while together with his parents, he had to do different jobs already as a
child. It was back then that he discovered that happiness does not depend on
what we do, but on how we do it. We can find the challenge in everything: we
can always strain after accomplishing our tasks better, faster or in a more
inventive way. This way we can transform work into play and we can avoid being
bored, which is a clear sign that we should change something (page 33.).
‘I do not want to end
up as a character actor who can only play one well-defined role’. It is a great feeling to play one role well,
but it is easy to get rusty and become addicted to the world we created, if we
always play the same role in life as well. That is why it is important to
always remain open and approach reality in a playful manner (page 37). What we
need for playfulness is that we are not concerned with ourselves too much and
we should not be afraid of becoming ridiculous (p. 61.).
What is an autotelic activity? In his book we can find the
answer to this question as well. The word ‘autotelic’ is of Greek origin,
‘auto’ means self and ‘telos’ means objective. An autotelic activity is an
activity having a purpose in itself, one whose objective is itself, something
we do with pleasure just for the joy of the activity itself. While doing these
activities we can live through the flow experience (page 149.). We can lose a
lot if the reward for our work does not come from inside, but solely from
external sources, says the author. In the chapter entitled ‘Work, play,
exhilaration’ the author explains that work itself should also mean a reward. If our work does not recompense us, if we
only work for money or an award, then sooner or later we will burn out
(page 58.).
And this is not only theory, but practice as well. Csíkszentmihályi
mentions the Patagonia clothes factory where they had already realized that
work and play does not rule out, rather strengthen each other. The central
office of the company is in a small town in California, next to the ocean.
Approximately 100 people work in the office, in the lobby there is a huge clock
and there are surf boards on the wall. When waves become 1 meter high, the
clock tolls and all the employees can go outside surfing. The main message of the company’s philosophy is that it is not
compulsory to work, everyone can freely decide if he/she wants to surf or work
(page 65.).
The author introduces his principles of parenting in the book
and also presents a new school model that functions very well according to him. He also discusses the disadvantages of the flow
experience, as the experience of absorption has advantages and disadvantages as
well.
I like the books of Csíkszentmihályi because they strengthen
the faith in me that playing is permitted. The book has not been published yet in Hungarian but I already recommend
it to everybody who would like to read about how life is according to
Csíkszentmihályi in a lightsome and readable form.
