Posted by pseudoname on February 11, 2006, at 19:00:14
In last month's "Psychotherapy Networker", there's a essay by a guy who took Martin Seligman's positive psychology course and failed it — in spirit.
Seligman is the guy who coined "learned helplessness" when his dogs gave up trying to avoid an electric shock. He went on to try figuring out how people could learn optimism. He wrote a book called "Learned Optimism" (1990). Then he had an international happiness conference and started a new academic discipline devoted to making people look on the bright side of life. He published "Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment" in 2002.
So Handler, the guy who wrote the article, took Seligman's course and couldn't be positive enough, happy enough, or satisfied enough to meet its standards (though he pretended to anyway). He found the approach a little forced, a little bit Victorian, a little bit in denial.
That was my feeling about Seligman. He's WAAAY too confident about his answers. Beware psychologists who have it all figured out. (Bossy control freaks.)
Not that studying happiness is bad! Dictating happiness is bad.
Like most "Networker" articles, it's about twice as long as it needs to be, but it's got a worthwhile perspective on the positive putsch.
• LINK: "20 Weeks to Happiness: Can a course in Positive Psychology change your life?" by Richard Handler. Psychotherapy Networker, Jan-Feb 2006 http://www.psychotherapynetworker.org/jf06_handler.html
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thread:608719
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