Dr David Burns is the author of five books including the bestselling Feeling Good and Feeling Good Together. He is an Adjunct Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine and has served as Visiting Scholar at Harvard Medical School. In February 2008 Dr Burns and Feeling Good were featured on the BBC's Imagine series (first episode).
You 'have to write quite alot' of this book yourself. Lists and questionnaires analyse to the nth degree patterns of thinking that may not be effective. Self-esteem as a byproduct of healthy thinking can be built up by reconstructing negative feelings, and this can be achieved by questioning self-defeating assumptions, learning to recognize and gain control over them. Such guides must necessarily work simply, but this is sometimes too simplistic in the revelation that thought affects feeling, although it doesn't hurt to be reminded. Borrowing techniques from other self-help books, e.g. the commitment contact to the book itself, and the constant check lists, may not inspire the desire mantra of mood, and ultimately disappoints in the claim of its title. (Kirkus UK)