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"In her book, psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and researcher Susan C. Vaughan, M.D., offers fresh and helpful ways to understand optimism. Reality, she shows, is overrated; instead, it is healthy illusions that form the base of optimism. Optimism flows from our ability to interpret and remember our experiences in a positive light. If we can do this on a regular basis and if we can trust ourselves to moderate our own moods, then all the good things that flow from an optimistic view of life can be ours. Examining the origins of optimism in early life and offering new evidence for the role of…