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A historical hangover the focus on misery
Through most of human history, life has been a ‘veil of tears’. When nations are poor, at war, in famine, in plague or in social disharmony, it is perfectly natural that their science, their art and their thoughts turn to survival, defence and managing trauma. Historically, the most that any government or individual could do was to minimise suffering—to hold our misery to zero. When nations are wealthy and at peace—not in plague, not in famine, not in poverty—their thoughts are elsewhere. In times like there, I ask no less a question than this: what is the most you can hope for in life? What is the most you can hope for in the future of your children? What is the most you can hope for in the future of your nation? By Martin Seligman |
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A new role for positive psychology
Mental health practice over the last century has focused on helping people find a way not to feel bad. Helping people feel better is an important goal but when it is reached, and the broken part is ‘fixed’, you are back to a neutral state. Traditional psychology does not give people the tools to feel good, to flourish. This is a deficit approach—an approach that focuses on mental illness or incapacity. Thirty years ago, the idea that it would be a good thing to build wellbeing in individual lives, corporations and nations would not have been taken seriously. That is because we did not know how to define or measure wellbeing; we did not know how to build it. Thirty years on, we do know how to define, measure and how to build wellbeing. We can prove that there are benefits. We have made it a science – the science of Positive Psychology and wellbeing. By Martin Seligman |