Optimal and Positive Psychology

So much of Western health—including mental health—is focused on what is wrong with us and what drug can be prescribed as a quick fix.

But what if we’re looking at everything the wrong way?

What if we shifted the focus on the positive instead? Would that open up a whole new world to us?

These are the kind of questions that led psychologist Martin Seligman, Ph.D. to create Positive Psychology.

It was a direct response to western medicine’s focus on maladaptive behavior, and negative thinking when it came to mental illness. 

In more specific words, he defined it as the “scientific study of optimal human functioning [that] aims to discover and promote the factors that allow individuals and communities to thrive.”

Reframing our difficulties as adaptive strivings rather than illness, Positive Psychology helps us see ourselves through the lens of our strengths rather than our weaknesses. 

This doesn’t mean denying our pain or ignoring our problems. 

It simply means that just because we’re struggling it doesn’t mean we’re broken. 

It just means we’re human. 

Emphasizing happiness, well-being, and positivity, we focus on how to optimize our lives and build upon our strengths. 

The ultimate goal with Positive Psychology is living a life that allows you to experience happiness, fulfillment, and meaning. 

In its inception, psychology used to center on a couple different components, like improving normal lives, curing mental illnesses, and identifying and nurturing peoples’ talents. 

However, after World War II, the field shifted to only curing mental illnesses, which meant focusing almost exclusively on what wasn’t going right. 

After the war, many people came back with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and so resources were put towards curing and treating mental illnesses. 

That’s when psychology adopted the “disease model” rather than a wellness and optimization model.  

While this led to some positive discoveries, such as finding treatments for once-incurable illnesses like depression and panic attacks, the tendency to view ourselves through the lens of our brokenness has become endemic in our culture in ways that are hurting us rather than helping us grow and thrive.