Coping with Aging is the final project of the late Richard S. Lazarus, the man whose landmark book Emotion and Adaptation put the study of emotion in play in the field of psychology. In this volume, Lazarus examines the experience of aging from the standpoint of the individual, rather than as merely a collection of statistics and charts. This technique is in line with his long-standing belief that experiences should be looked at in their specific contexts, rather than squeezed into an overly general statistical viewpoint that loses the subjects' motivations. Drawing on his five decades of pioneering research, Lazarus looks at aging, emotion, and coping, and stability and change in both environment and personality. Because Lazarus mixes academic rigor with everyday examples, this volume will be both useful to scholars and accessible to the lay audience that has so much gain from a systematic understanding of aging and emotion.

When Oxford published Emotion and Adaptation, the landmark 1991 book on the psychology of emotion by internationally acclaimed stress and coping expert Richard Lazarus, Contemporary Psychology welcomed it as "a brightly shining star in the galaxy of such volumes." Psychiatrists, psychologists and researchers hailed it as a masterpiece, a major breakthrough in our understanding of the emotional process and its central role in our adaptation as individuals and as a species. What was still needed, however, was a book for general readers and health care practitioners that would dispel the myths still surrounding cultural beliefs about emotion and systematically explain the relevance of the new research to the emotional dramas of our everyday lives.

Now, in The Passions of Life, Lazarus draws on his four decades of pioneering research to bring readers the first book to move beyond both clinical jargon and "feel-good" popular psychology to really explain, in plain, accessible language, how emotions are aroused, how they are managed, and how they critically shape our views of ourselves and the world around us. With his co-author writer Bernice Lazarus, Dr. Lazarus explores the latest findings on the short and long-term causes and effects of various emotions, including the often conflicting research on stress management and links between negative emotions and heart disease, cancer, and other aspects of physical and psychological health. Lazarus makes a strong case that contrary to common assumption, emotions are not irrational--our emotions and our analytical thought processes are inextricably linked.

While not a "how-to" book, The Passions of Life does describe how readers can interpret what lies behind their own emotions and those of their families, friends, and co-workers, and how to manage them more effectively. Exploring fifteen emotions in depth, from love to jealousy, the authors show how the personal meaning we give to the events and conditions of our lives trigger such emotions as anger, anxiety, guilt, and pride. They provide fascinating vignettes to frame a "biography" of each emotion. Some are composite case histories drawn from Dr. Lazarus's long career, but most are stories of people the Lazaruses have known over the years--people whose emotional fears, conflicts, and desires mirror readers' own. The Lazaruses also offer a special chapter on the diverse strategies of coping people use in managing their emotions, and another, "When Coping Fails," on psychotherapy and its approaches to emotional stress and dysfunction, from traditional Freudian psychoanalysis to continuing research into relaxation techniques, meditation, hypnosis, and biofeedback.

Packed with insight and compellingly readable, The Passions of Life will enrich all readers fascinated by our emotional lives.