Positive psychology and Buddhism

Exploring Theravāda's connections to other paths - what can we learn from other traditions, religions and philosophies?
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retrofuturist
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Positive psychology and Buddhism

Post by retrofuturist »

Greetings,

I just wanted to start up a very open ended discussion on "positive psychology" and to get your thoughts on any overlap between it and Buddhism, and what the two disciplines might be able to offer one another...

Positive psychology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_psychology" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Positive psychology is a recent branch of psychology whose purpose was summed up in 1998 by Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: "We believe that a psychology of positive human functioning will arise, which achieves a scientific understanding and effective interventions to build thriving individuals, families, and communities." Positive psychologists seek "to find and nurture genius and talent", and "to make normal life more fulfilling", rather than merely treating mental illness.

The branch intends to complement and focus, not to replace or ignore the rest of psychology. It does not seek to deny the importance of studying how things go wrong, but rather to emphasize the importance of using the scientific method to determine how things go right. This field brings attention to the possibility that focusing only on the disorder itself would result in only a partial understanding of a patient's condition.

Researchers in the field analyze things like states of pleasure or flow, values, strengths, virtues, talents, as well as the ways that they can be promoted by social systems and institutions. Positive psychologists are concerned with four topics: (1) positive experiences, (2) enduring psychological traits, (3) positive relationships and (4) positive institutions
Metta,
Retro. :)
"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
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retrofuturist
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Re: Positive psychology and Buddhism

Post by retrofuturist »

Thanks Dhammapal.

:thumbsup:

Metta,
Retro. :)
"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
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Dan74
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Re: Positive psychology and Buddhism

Post by Dan74 »

I don't know anything about "positive psychology" but the little excerpt above makes it sound as if all psychology was about treating disorders. This is certainly not the case. As early as Carl Jung, they focused at attaining a more balanced fulfilling way of life (see Jung's concept of individuation for example). And then later people like Abraham Maslow did a lot of research into what makes flexible, creative and well-adjusted individuals and looked at "self-actualisation".
_/|\_
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Alobha
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Re: Positive psychology and Buddhism

Post by Alobha »

Positive psychology is a recent branch of psychology whose purpose was summed up in 1998 by Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
I read a paper on task enjoyment that was refering to both of them just yesterday, what a coincidence!
Yeah, there seems to be quite some good input from positive psychologists. The paper I read yesterday was about how task enjoyment enhances task performance when people receive feedback. Making work enjoyable for employees sure is good for a company, too!
Of course, the findings are rather mundane compared to BuddhaDhamma, but well, it's still something :smile:
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Ben
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Re: Positive psychology and Buddhism

Post by Ben »

Martin Seligman is excellent. I remember reading one of his books about ten years ago on the power of optimism. I've seen him interviewed on the subject of his positive psychology program in the US Military. I think modern positive psychology and the Buddha Dhamma complement each other and there are echoes of each in the other.
kind regards,

Ben
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in mountain clefts and chasms,
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