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1 Positive Psychology, Positive Prevention, and Positive Therapy 1 Positive Psychology, Positive Prevention, and Positive Therapy Martin E. P. Seligman Positive Psychology mindedness, high talent, and wisdom. At the group level it is about the civic virtues and the Psychology after World War II became a science institutions that move individuals toward better largely devoted to healing. It concentrated on citizenship: responsibility, nurturance, altruism, repairing damage using a disease model of hu- civility, moderation, tolerance, and work ethic man functioning. This almost exclusive atten- (Gillham & Seligman, 1999; Seligman & Csik- tion to pathology neglected the idea of a fulfilled szentmihalyi, 2000). individual and a thriving community, and it ne- The notion of a positive psychology move- glected the possibility that building strength is ment began at a moment in time a few months the most potent weapon in the arsenal of ther- after I had been elected president of the Amer- apy. The aim of positive psychology is to cata- ican Psychological Association. It took place in lyze a change in psychology from a preoccu- my garden while I was weeding with my 5- pation only with repairing the worst things in year-old daughter, Nikki. I have to confess that life to also building the best qualities in life. To even though I write books about children, I’m redress the previous imbalance, we must bring really not all that good with them. I am goal- the building of strength to the forefront in the oriented and time-urgent, and when I am weed- treatment and prevention of mental illness. ing in the garden, I am actually trying to get The field of positive psychology at the sub- the weeding done. Nikki, however, was throw- jective level is about positive subjective ex- ing weeds into the air and dancing around. I perience: well-being and satisfaction (past); yelled at her. She walked away, came back, and flow, joy, the sensual pleasures, and happiness said, “Daddy, I want to talk to you.” (present); and constructive cognitions about the “Yes, Nikki?” future—optimism, hope, and faith. At the in- “Daddy, do you remember before my fifth dividual level it is about positive personal birthday? From the time I was three to the time traits—the capacity for love and vocation, cour- Iwasfive,Iwasawhiner.Iwhinedeveryday. age, interpersonal skill, aesthetic sensibility, When I turned five, I decided not to whine any- perseverance, forgiveness, originality, future- more. That was the hardest thing I’ve ever 3 4 PART I. INTRODUCTORY AND HISTORICAL OVERVIEW done. And if I can stop whining, you can stop making the lives of all people better and nur- being such a grouch.” turing genius—were all but forgotten. It was This was for me an epiphany, nothing less. I not only the subject matter that altered with learned something about Nikki, something funding but also the currency of the theories about raising kids, something about myself, and underpinning how we viewed ourselves. Psy- agreatdealaboutmyprofession.First,Ireal- chology came to see itself as a mere subfield of ized that raising Nikki was not about correcting the health professions, and it became a victim- whining. Nikki did that herself. Rather, I real- ology. We saw human beings as passive foci: ized that raising Nikki was about taking this stimuli came on and elicited responses (what an marvelous skill—I call it “seeing into the extraordinarily passive word). External rein- soul”—and amplifying it, nurturing it, helping forcements weakened or strengthened re- her to lead her life around it to buffer against sponses, or drives, tissue needs, or instincts. her weaknesses and the storms of life. Raising Conflicts from childhood pushed each of us children, I realized, is more than fixing what is around. wrong with them. It is about identifying and Psychology’s empirical focus then shifted to nurturing their strongest qualities, what they assessing and curing individual suffering. There own and are best at, and helping them find has been an explosion in research on psycho- niches in which they can best live out these pos- logical disorders and the negative effects of en- itive qualities. vironmental stressors such as parental divorce, As for my own life, Nikki hit the nail right death, and physical and sexual abuse. Practi- on the head. I was a grouch. I had spent 50 tioners went about treating mental illness years mostly enduring wet weather in my soul, within the disease-patient framework of repair- and the last 10 years being a nimbus cloud in a ing damage: damaged habits, damaged drives, household of sunshine. Any good fortune I had damaged childhood, and damaged brains. was probably not due to my grouchiness but in The message of the positive psychology spite of it. In that moment, I resolved to change. movement is to remind our field that it has been But the broadest implication of Nikki’s lesson deformed. Psychology is not just the study of was about the science and practice of psychol- disease, weakness, and damage; it also is the ogy. Before World War II, psychology had study of strength and virtue. Treatment is not three distinct missions: curing mental illness, just fixing what is wrong; it also is building making the lives of all people more productive what is right. Psychology is not just about ill- and fulfilling, and identifying and nurturing ness or health; it also is about work, education, high talent. Right after the war, two events— insight, love, growth, and play. And in this both economic—changed the face of psychol- quest for what is best, positive psychology does ogy. In 1946, the Veterans Administration was not rely on wishful thinking, self-deception, or founded, and thousands of psychologists found hand waving; instead, it tries to adapt what is out that they could make a living treating men- best in the scientific method to the unique prob- tal illness. At that time the profession of clinical lems that human behavior presents in all its psychologist came into its own. In 1947, the Na- complexity. tional Institute of Mental Health (which was based on the American Psychiatric Association’s disease model and is better described as the Na- Positive Prevention tional Institute of Mental Illness) was founded, and academics found out that they could get What foregrounds this approach is the issue of grants if their research was described as being prevention. In the last decade psychologists about pathology. have become concerned with prevention, and This arrangement brought many substantial this was the theme of the 1998 American Psy- benefits. There have been huge strides in the chological Association meeting in San Francisco. understanding of and therapy for mental illness: How can we prevent problems like depression At least 14 disorders, previously intractable, or substance abuse or schizophrenia in young have yielded their secrets to science and can people who are genetically vulnerable or who now be either cured or considerably relieved live in worlds that nurture these problems? (Seligman, 1994). But the downside was that the How can we prevent murderous schoolyard vi- other two fundamental missions of psychology— olence in children who have poor parental su- CHAPTER 1. POSITIVE PREVENTION AND POSITIVE THERAPY 5 pervision, a mean streak, and access to weapons? strengths that these teens already have. A teen- What we have learned over 50 years is that the ager who is future-minded, who is interperson- disease model does not move us closer to the ally skilled, who derives flow from sports, is not prevention of these serious problems. Indeed, at risk for substance abuse. If we wish to pre- the major strides in prevention have largely vent schizophrenia in a young person at genetic come from a perspective focused on systemati- risk, I would propose that the repairing of dam- cally building competency, not correcting weak- age is not going to work. Rather, I suggest that ness. ayoungpersonwholearnseffectiveinterper- We have discovered that there are human sonal skills, who has a strong work ethic, and strengths that act as buffers against mental ill- who has learned persistence under adversity is ness: courage, future-mindedness, optimism, in- at lessened risk for schizophrenia. terpersonal skill, faith, work ethic, hope, hon- This, then, is the general stance of positive esty, perseverance, the capacity for flow and psychology toward prevention. It claims that insight, to name several. Much of the task of there is a set of buffers against psychopathol- prevention in this new century will be to create ogy: the positive human traits. The Nikki prin- ascienceofhumanstrengthwhosemissionwill ciple holds that by identifying, amplifying, and be to understand and learn how to foster these concentrating on these strengths in people at virtues in young people. risk, we will do effective prevention. Working My own work in prevention takes this ap- exclusively on personal weakness and on dam- proach and amplifies a skill that all individuals aged brains, and deifying the Diagnostic and possess but usually deploy in the wrong place. Statistical Manual (DSM), in contrast, has ren- The skill is called disputing (Beck, Rush, Shaw, dered science poorly equipped to do effective &Emery,1979),anditsuseisattheheartof prevention. We now need to call for massive “learned optimism.” If an external person, who research on human strength and virtue. We is a rival for your job, accuses you falsely of need to develop a nosology of human strength— failing at your job and not deserving your po- the “UNDSM-I”, the opposite of DSM-IV.We sition, you will dispute him. You will marshal need to measure reliably and validly these all the evidence that you do your job very well. strengths. We need to do the appropriate lon- You will grind the accusations into dust.
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