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
It used to be that whenever I introduced myself to people and told them I was a psychologist, they would shrink away from me. Because, quite rightly, the impression the American public has of psychologists is, 'You want to know what's wrong with me.'
Interpretation
What this quote means
Psychologists often face stigma as people fear being judged or exposed.
Martin Seligman highlights the stigma associated with psychology, emphasizing that when he revealed his profession, people often recoiled due to their perception that psychologists are primarily interested in uncovering personal flaws or issues. This reflects a broader societal misconception about mental health professionals and the essential roles they play in promoting well-being rather than merely diagnosing problems.
Themes
PsychologyStigmaMental HealthPerceptionUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
In a talk on mental health awareness, one might say, 'As Martin Seligman pointed out, the stigma around psychology often leads to misunderstandings about its true purpose.'
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.
Martin SeligmanRead
The dirty little secret of both clinical psychology and biological psychiatry is that they have completely given up on the notion of cure.
Martin SeligmanRead
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.
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.
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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