is Positive Psychology.
I got into it in a roundabout way: caught Jonathan Haidt's TED talk and started looking at his other stuff. Read everything he had on the web for his book 'The Happiness Hypothesis', including quite a few complete chapters, then bought the book. (Which just goes to show the value of making things available for free and then people buying them...)
Once I finished reading THH closely, I requested the two Martin Seligman books our library has: 'Learned Optimism' and 'Authentic Happiness'. Seligman is maybe the leading figure in the field. I'm partially into both of these books (one is audio) and as interested as ever.
Then I found out my friends, Kurt and Kathi, are into the field through a different entree, Tal Ben-Shahar, who teaches the biggest class at Harvard and it's on Positive Psychology. His website is not as rich as I might wish, but his book's selling like hotcakes ;-)
It does look, however, like all of his lectures from the course have been put up on YouTube. The first one is here. Not sure if I'll watch them all, yet. That would be a lot of time, and it's a pretty inefficient medium.
What's my motivation? I am not as happy as I should be. I have a great life in most ways. But my mind has some pessimistic function that is working against me. I am hoping that I'm going to be able to recalibrate.
Sunday, February 15
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7 comments:
Sean - great to hear of your interest in Seligman's work and positive psychology. I've started a website called http://www.happier.com which is closely advised by Seligman and others in the field. On happier.com you can measure, track and improve your happiness through the tools of positive psychology. I encourage you to register (for free) and take a look at the site. And since we're always interested in feedback, please let us know what you think of the project. Thanks!
-Andrew
Going back to John Watson 80 years ago, the purpose of psychology is to 'control and improve' (he used the term 'shape') human behavior. We would add to that emotions, feelings, and thoughts.
I enjoyed the idea of positive psychology when I was first exposed to it, but I'm not very able to determine where it is different from much else in psychology. Certainly the medical field focuses on avoided the worst outcomes, but many fields of psychology (from organizational behavior in business schools to my own niche of educational psychology) emphasize getting the best out of the normal population.
let's recalibrate together. i'm tired of being a nihilist (according to ben-shahar's definition.....).
I said to myself(before I got to the last paragraph), hmmmm Bubba's not 110% happy? You need to get outside(of doors) into the Sun(vitamin D is good)or any weather for that matter, it's all good, even the extremes. I've told you this before, take up golf. You get into that scrap yet? Can't trust a man who's never ..............
There is no psychology, psychiatry, all bullshit. ;~)
kg: done!
GSR: getting outside is good, you're right. i've been in fights, but not recently. are you offering? ;-)
we disagree on psych.
You could move to Utah. :)
great idea! ;-)
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