What You Can Change _. And What You Can't - Martin E. Seligman [131]
I sought and received the advice and comments of many people—experts in the wide range of the disorders, drugs, psychotherapies, and self-improvement schemes—and I have tried to integrate that wisdom into this book. I extend my thanks to them now, with the customary absolution for the results. First, the people who read and commented on entire chapters or even longer swaths: Kelly Brownell (dieting), David Clark of Oxford University (anxiety), Michael Crichton (all), Edna Foa (PTSD and depth), Alan Kors (booters and bootstrappers), Alan Marlatt (alcoholism), John Money (sex), Robert Plomin (childhood), Jack Rachman (obsessions), Sandy Scarr (childhood), Amanda Seligman, my oldest daughter (all of Part 1), Joseph Volpicelli (alcoholism), George Vaillant (alcoholism), Fred Van Fleteren (booters and bootstrappers), and Terry Wilson of Rutgers University (dieting and alcoholism).
Several people have allowed me to reprint their questionnaires in the book: I thank Lisa Friedman Miller, Lenore Radloff, Melvin Selzer, and Charles Spielberger.
Jonathan Segal and Richard Pine each gave the manuscript several readings and improved it each time, not only sentence by sentence but in substance. Heather Smay read the manuscript as it evolved and was my tireless research assistant. My secretaries, Elise McMahon and Terry Silver, were helpful in ways too diverse to number.
So many conversations, so many constructive comments, so many memos and letters, so much time freely given, so much exchange of ideas—I am sure I have inadvertently omitted some who helped, but my thanks to Jeff Albert, Lauren Alloy, Lori Andiman, Mike Bailey, Paul Baltes, Jon Baron, Aaron Beck, Mary Bell, Beth Brezner, Kevin Brownlee, Greg Buchanan, David Buss, Dan Chirot, Billy Coren, Paul Crits-Cristoph, Rob DeRubeis, Harold Dibble, Ken Dodge, Maureen Eisenberg, Albert Ellis, David Featherman, Alan Feingold, Pamela Freyd, Alan Fridlund, Lisa Friedman, Jim Fries, Don Fusting, Judy Garber, Joan Girgus, Henry Gleitman, Lila Gleitman, David Goldberg, Ruben Gur, T. George Harris, Peter Herman, Tom Hirst, Steve Hollon, Janet Hyde, Lisa Jaycox, Charlie Jesnig, Martin Katahn, Gerald Klerman, John LaRosa, Bruce Larsen, Lester Luborsky, David Lykken, Alan Mann, Isaac Marks, Jack Maser, Dennis McCarthy, Nigel McCarthy, Jeff Meckstroth, Shirlee Meckstroth, Bob Miller, Sue Mineka, Paul Monaco, Peter Muehrer, Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, Gabriele Oettingen, Dan Oran, James Pennebaker, Chris Peterson, Arthur Pine, Chris Pro-kop, Judith Rapoport, Karen Reivich, Richard Rende, Bob Rescorla, Sam Revusky, Chris Risley, Judy Rodin, Dave Rosenhan, Mollie Rosenhan, Julie Rubenstein, Marvin Sachs, Harold Sackeim, Robert Schuller, Peter Schulman, Barry Schwartz, David Seligman, Irene Seligman, Paul Soloway, David Spiegel, John Stickney, Mickey Stunkard, Paul Thomas, Lou Tice, Joseph Volpicelli, Peter Whybrow, George Wilson, Camille Wortman, and the students in Psychology 709 in the spring semesters of 1992 and 1993.
The most special thanks go to my wife, Mandy McCarthy Seligman, not only for reading and commenting on all of this book (except this part), but for her unflagging good cheer and boundless love. And to Nicole Seligman, my two-year-old. The writing of the book began on or about the day of her conception, and the first draft was finished the day she took her first steps. Her buoyancy and the sunshine she radiates made even the hardest parts easier.
M.E.P.S.
July 1993
NOTES
A serious scholar writing for the general public walks a tightrope between readability and responsibility. My way of presenting the scholarship