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
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Psychology should focus not only on alleviating suffering but also on enhancing well-being.
Martin Seligman suggests that psychology has made significant strides in understanding and treating mental health issues. However, he believes that merely addressing problems to reduce suffering is insufficient; true psychological health requires promoting flourishing and well-being beyond just the absence of distress.
Themes
PsychologyMental HealthWell-BeingHappinessFlourishing
In practice
Example use cases
In a mental health seminar discussing the importance of positive psychology.
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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The good life is using your signature strengths every day to produce authentic happiness and abundant gratification.
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Perhaps the single most robust fact across many surveys is that married people are happier than anyone else.
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