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Adaptation to Life
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 155.6
EAN: 9780674004146
ISBN: 0674004140
Label: Harvard University Press
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 416
Publication Date: August 11, 1998
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Studio: Harvard University Press
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Editorial Review: Between 1939 and 1942, one of America's leading universities recruited 268 of its healthiest and most promising undergraduates to participate in a revolutionary new study of the human life cycle. The originators of the program, which came to be known as the Grant Study, felt that medical research was too heavily weighted in the direction of disease, and their intent was to chart the ways in which a group of promising individuals coped with their lives over the course of many years. Nearly forty years later, George E. Vaillant, director of the Study, took the measure of the Grant Study men. The result was the compelling, provocative classic, Adaptation to Life, which poses fundamental questions about the individual differences in confronting life's stresses. Why do some of us cope so well with the portion life offers us, while others, who have had similar advantages (or disadvantages), cope badly or not at all? Are there ways we can effectively alter those patterns of behavior that make us unhappy, unhealthy, and unwise? George Vaillant discusses these and other questions in terms of a clearly defined scheme of "adaptive mechanisms" that are rated mature, neurotic, immature, or psychotic, and illustrates, with case histories, each method of coping.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - A Thoroughly Enjoyable Deeply insightful Read
It has become a personal habit to browse through this book from time to time since I first read it several years back. It is one of the most inspiring and insightful true depiction of real human lives studied over 80 years (and still going on) by a Harvard psychiatrist. When the study started, it was considered to be a rather mammoth task and created curiosity among contemporary researchers about its possible outcomes. And readers will find it's simply amazing to follow the narratives of different ... Read More
Rating:  - Limited scope
The scope of the study (as mentioned in other reviews) is limited not just to American males, but to those who graduated from college, and come from middle class or better backgrounds. Even within this context, the group selected included 238 of the "healthiest and most promising graduates" from one of America's "leading universities." So clearly, the study looks at some of the most privileged people in the world. Given this background, when reviewers say things like "Its most important finding, in ... Read More
Rating: - Adaptation to Life
I purchase copies of this book by the dozen, as I frequently hand it out to friends and associates of all ages. Personally, I have read it at least three times since it first appeared, and I refer to it often.
The book is organized in alternating chapters of theory and case studies. The theoretical chapters are dense, but fascinating, and make a compelling case for the developmental sequence of what Vailliant calls "defenses" - i.e. adaptive mechanisms. The case studies are fascinating ... Read More
Rating: - Adaptation to Life
A fine book following a class of very smart folks who are ... adapting to life in 'the real world'. It's been updated from the original with further info on the people. Very educational and a pleasant read.
Rating: - This book changed my life
This book is amazing. It provides concrete examples based on a wonderful study of a group of Harvard graduates of how different psychological coping methods helped people succeed or fail during their lives.
Its most important finding, in my view, is that peoples circumstances in life play no role in their eventual success or failure. Instead, it is the coping methods that people develop, and the positive effort they put in, that decide their outcomes and happiness.
Most chapters ... Read More
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