This week's book review is a critique of a personal power enhancement publication titled Appreciative Living© by Jacqueline Bascobert Kelm. The book's primary purpose is to take us beyond the necessity of gratitude in everyday life for what we have, into the still modestly explored realm, first studied at Case Western Reserve University in 1980, of Appreciative Inquiry. In the authors' words, "AI is about the co-evolutionary search for the best in people, their organizations, and the relevant world around them". In layman's terms, this means the envisioning of the best of what we want, steering clear of any thought or intimation for what we don't. In other words, think more about what we want than what we dread, empowering the positive in the process.
This has a direct application in caffected relationships. In psychology, the phrase 'unconditional positive regard' is used to denote a devotion one feels toward another, such as a mother for a child. Caffected couples have this as well, and AI allows further affirmation of that.
