PHILADELPHIA -- "Authentic Happiness," the latest book by University of Pennsylvania psychologist Martin E.P. Seligman, has been named Books for a Better Life's "Best Psychology Book" of 2002.

The Books for a Better Life awards, presented by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, pay tribute to the popular category of books labeled "self-help," "motivational," "self-improvement" or "advice."

Seligman, a professor of psychology at Penn and founder of the positive psychology movement, has developed self-tests, exercises and a Web site -- www.authentichappiness.org -- to help people focus on their strengths rather than their weaknesses. He counsels that happiness can be cultivated using traits readers already possess and that by calling upon "signature strengths" readers can develop natural buffers against misfortune and negative emotion.

"Relieving the states that make life miserable ... has made building the states that make life worth living less of a priority," Seligman writes. "The time has finally arrived for a science that seeks to understand positive emotion, build strength and virtue, and provide guideposts for finding what Aristotle called the 'good life.'"

"Authentic Happiness" (Free Press, 2002) is Seligman's 20th book. Previous titles include "Learned Optimism" (Pocket Books, 1998), "The Optimistic Child" (Perennial, 1996) and "What You Can Change ... and What You Can't" (Fawcett, 1995). Seligman serves as director of the Positive Psychology Network and was president of the American Psychological Association in 1998.

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society provides services and support to those whose lives have been affected by the disease and funds research to find the cause, advance therapies and discover a cure for multiple sclerosis. The Society supports Books for a Better Life because overcoming and adjusting to life's challenges goes hand-in-hand with a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.

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