Oprah Winfrey’s Co-Author Arthur C. Brooks Explains How She Has ‘Cracked the Code’ for Handling Fame (Exclusive)

When Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey were working on their new co-authored book, Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Becoming Happiereach passed the personality test found in one of the book’s chapters.

The test, called the PANAS, is designed to measure how a person experiences emotions, both positive and negative, and its score classifies those who take it into one of four types: Mad Scientist, who strongly experiences both positive and negative emotions; cheerleader, whose positive emotions dominate; the poet, who veers toward the negative; and the Judge, who calmly reacts to both positive and negative emotions.

Brooks, an academic and author who spent several years as CEO of a leading think tank, is the type of mad scientist. “That means I’m a happy person, but I’m also an unhappy person because you can be both,” she tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue.

‘Build the Life You Want’ by Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey.

courtesy of PRH

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Oprah is the exact opposite: The Judge, a person whose emotional balance prevents her from experiencing the highest highs or the lowest lows.

That, Brooks notes, may be one reason she’s been able to maintain a happy and authentic life—even while experiencing a level of fame that can destabilize others.

“I knew a lot of politicians and presidents, just because of the job I had before. But since I wrote From Strength to Strength, I knew a lot of actors and athletes, because it was a book about aspirations that struggle to move on with their lives. I met a lot of people really, really, really in public. Most are not what they seem,” explains Brooks. “And the reason is that people struggle so much to maintain an image because they need it. I’m super sympathetic to that.”

Arthur C. Brooks.

Rahil Ahad/Legatum Institute

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But Oprah is different, he adds.

“Oprah is literally what she appears to be, and the reason is that she cracked the code of how to be a public figure and be privately content and happy at the same time,” he says. “I’ve rarely met someone like that. I’ve rarely met someone like that… she’s at peace.”

All this stems from her personality as a judge. “It means that she doesn’t give a shit about good or bad things,” he explains. “And the reason is that she’s a peaceful person. If she wasn’t, she’d be crazy.”

“She’s probably one of the five most famous people in the world, and she would lose her mind, which is what famous people do,” adds Brooks.

Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey.

Candice Gayle

Although many people think they would love to be famous, Brooks warns that it is not as fun as it seems.

“Fame is very hard on the brain,” he says. “And so people who become famous before they’re 15, for example, many never recover because the reward circuits are broken forever.”

For more on Oprah Winfrey and Arthur C. Brook’s new book, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribe here.

Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Becoming Happier is available wherever books are sold on Tuesday, September 12.

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Source: HIS Education