The Hidden Gifts of Helping : How the Power of Giving, Compassion, and Hope Can Get Us Through Hard Times

Not only the worlds religions but also recent research across a number of disciplines tell us that helping others benefits those we assist and is good for us as well. The astonishingly generous outpouring of help and donations in response to the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile is a clear demonstration of this phenomenon, but what if we could be convinced to make helping others a way of life, even when times are hard? Thats what Stephen G. Posts new book has set out to do. Post uses touching stories from his own and others' lives as well as insights and research from evolutionary psychology, altruism, psychiatry, and the treatment of mental illness to prove the benefits of helping others.