I'm trying to broaden the scope of positive psychology well beyond the smiley face. Happiness is just one-fifth of what human beings choose to do.
Martin SeligmanRead
One of the things psychologists used to say was that if you are depressed, anxious or angry, you couldn't be happy. Those were at opposite ends of a continuum. I believe that you can be suffering or have a mental illness and be happy - just not in the same moment that you're sad.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Happiness can coexist with suffering or mental illness, but not simultaneously with feelings of sadness.
This quote by Martin Seligman challenges the traditional view that happiness and feelings of depression, anxiety, or anger are mutually exclusive. It suggests that while one may face struggles with mental health, it is still possible to experience happiness in different moments, emphasizing the complexities of human emotions and the spectrum of emotional experiences we face.
Themes
HappinessMental HealthEmotionsSufferingPsychology
In practice
Example use cases
During a mental health seminar, to highlight the complexities of emotions.
More from Martin Seligman
All quotes →One of my worries about America is the epidemic of depression we've been in. One of the possibilities about that is that the 'I' gets bigger and bigger, and the 'we' gets smaller and smaller.
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The dirty little secret of both clinical psychology and biological psychiatry is that they have completely given up on the notion of cure.
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The belief that we can rely on shortcuts to happiness, joy, rapture, comfort, and ecstasy, rather than be entitled to these feelings by the exercise of personal strengths and virtues, leads to legions of people who, in the middle of great wealth, are starving spiritually.
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I believe psychology has done very well in working out how to understand and treat disease. But I think that is literally half-baked. If all you do is work to fix problems, to alleviate suffering, then by definition you are working to get people to zero, to neutral.
Martin SeligmanRead
The good life is using your signature strengths every day to produce authentic happiness and abundant gratification.
Martin SeligmanRead
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