Life in Three Dimensions

by Shigehiro Oishi

"From one of our foremost psychologists, a trailblazing new book turns the idea of a good life on its head and urges us to embrace the transformative power of variety and experience. For many people, a good life is a stable life, a comfortable life that follows a well-trodden path. This is the case for Shigehiro Oishi's father, who has lived in a small mountain town in Japan for his entire life, putting his family's needs above his own, like his father and grandfather before him. But is a happy life, or even a meaningful life, also a good life? In Life in Three Dimensions, Shige Oishi enters into a debate that has animated psychology since 1984, when Ed Diener (Oishi's mentor) published a paper that launched happiness studies. A rival followed in 1989 with a model of a good life that focused on purpose and meaning instead. In recent years, Shige Oishi's award-winning work has proposed a third dimension to a good life: psychological richness, a new concept that prioritizes curiosity, exploration, and a variety of experiences that help us grow as people. Life in Three Dimensions explores the shortcomings of happiness and meaning as guides to a good life, pointing to complacency and regret as a "happiness trap" and narrowness and misplaced loyalty as the downside of a life of meaning. Psychological richness, Oishi proposes, balances the other two, offering insight and growth spurred by new experiences and changes in perspective. Psychological richness, Oishi writes, can come in the form of anything from a spur-of-the-moment lunch date to travel, immersion in the arts, a move, new relationships, and more dramatic life changes. Drawing on studies and examples from life and literature, Oishi shows how anyone can use the three core dimensions-happiness, meaning, and psychological richness-to build a fuller, more satisfying life"--