Positive Psychology vs Pathological Psychology
Positive Psychology: it might not be what you think
June 25, 2023 Written by Dr Rudy Wietfeldt 0 Comments
Talk therapy has been around for about 120 years. Freud and followers discovered the benefits of talking to patients to help them better understand the origin of their problems as well as how to overcome them.
It turns out, they were on to something! And this something evolved from Freud's psychoanalysis to, roughly speaking, behavioral treatments, to cognitive treatments, to the so-called third wave treatments.
Of course, built into the understanding of the word treatments is the notion of something wrong. Something pathological.
But then, about 100 years after Freud's initial foray, Dr. Martin Seligman introduced a novel concept. He essentially said, we've been studying what's wrong with people for a long time now. How about we start studying what's right with people.
And thus the field of Positive Psychology was born.
Some assume Positive Psychology is akin to positive thinking. Perhaps tell yourself you are not in pain and the pain will go away? Thoughts like this example are not consistent with positive thinking or Positive Psychology. Positive Psychology asks questions like, What makes people happy? What makes people resilient?
Whether we are struggling with life or not, these are questions we all can benefit from knowing more about.
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