Existential Positive Psychology

Positive Psychology (PP) is the scientific study of optimal human functioning and what makes life worth living. In other words, it is the psychology of the characteristics, conditions and processes which lead to flourishing. Initially when it was launched about a decade ago, it distanced itself from other branches of psychology. However, it has its roots in the works of William James in the late 19^th century, and humanistic psychology in the mid 20^th century. It also borrows from the ancient philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato. As a science, it focuses on discovering the empirical evidence for thriving.

PP originated from the University of Pennsylvania in the USA. The founders are psychology professors Martin Seligman, who is well known for his pioneering work on learned helplessness and later on learned optimism, and Mihalay Csikszentmihalyi best known for his work “Flow: The psychology of optimal experience”. The PP movement began in 1998 and since then new research articles and books on the subject have been written. The vast majority of psychology studies carried over the past 40 years have focused on the negative side of life such as anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, PTSD etc. PP redresses this imbalance by focusing on the human traits and circumstances which lead to thriving. The field is still holding sway over the researchers as is evident from the number of research papers, articles, bogs etc., that are being published over the past decade or so.

PP deals with well-being and happiness. Happiness, from ancient times, has been classified into Hedonic well-being and Eudaimonic well-being. The former refers to the happiness you get from feeling pleasure in the moment while the later is a broad term used by positive psychologists to refer to the happiness we gain from meaning and purpose in our lives, fulfilling our potential and feeling that we are part of something bigger than ourselves. These definitions have their own pitfalls and the positive psychologists had a number of reservations about them. Hence they went ahead and defined a new term “Subjective Well-Being (SWB)” which is expressed in the following formula:

SWB = Satisfaction with life + Positive Emotion – negative Emotion

Quite simple, right?

Just to give an idea of PP and its components, we can briefly look at the PP model of well-being postulated by Martin Seligman. It is defined as the PERMA model where

P – Positive Emotion – the experience of positive mood and feelings that are uplifting

E – Engagement – well-being you get from being totally absorbed in the task in hand

R – Relationships – Good, supportive and caring inter-personal connections are essential

M – Meaning – provides a stable foundation and sense of direction in life.

A – Accomplishment – includes everything from achievement, success and mastery at the highest level possible to progress towards goals and competence

However, there emerged another school of thought that felt the PP ignored the black reality of human existence. They also saw that Existential Psychology (EP) with its focus on death anxiety, meaninglessness and alienation is dark, because it does not focus on the joy of living. PP without existential insights and phenomenological analysis is full of adolescent exuberance but lacking depth. EP without rigorous research on human strengths and positive affects is full of wisdom but lacking in youthful vitality. Therefore it makes sense to bring the two domains of psychology together resulting in Existential Positive Psychology (EPP). 

EPP is a natural amalgam between PP and EP. The EPP psychologists, led by Dr. Paul Wong, discuss these 6 ultimate questions about human existence which deserves psychological investigation.

1.    Who am I? – What defines me? Who am I when everything is stripped away from me and I am reduced to a naked lonely soul? Is there anything unique and special about me?

2.    How can I be happy? – Why am I bored? Why am I so dissatisfied with life? What is the good life? Why is happiness so illusive? Is this all there is to life?

3.    What should I do with my life? – How should I then live? How could I live in a way that my life counts for something? What is my calling? To what should I devote the rest of my life?

4.   How do I make the right choices? – How do I know that I am making the right decisions regarding career and relationships? How can I tell right from wrong? What do I know what is the responsible thing to do in complex situations with conflicting moral standards?

5.    Where do I belong? – Why do I feel so alone in the world? Why don’t I feel at home in this planet Earth? Where is my home? Where do I belong? How do I develop deep and meaningful relationships? Where can I find acceptance?

6.    What is the point of striving when life is so short? – Why should I struggle when life is transient and fragile? What is the point in building something only to see it swallowed up by death?

All of these questions are related to the human quest for existential understanding. It is the spirit of asking tough questions and rejecting pre-packaged easy answers that characterizes existential psychology. EPP is open to insights, wisdoms and research on all aspects of human existence from all sources regardless of the paradigm of knowledge claims, thus providing a richer research agenda. In short, EPP broadens the definition of PP as “the qualitative and quantitative study of what enables people to survive and flourish individually and collectively in the totality of life circumstances” What qualifies EPP as positive psychology is its emphasis on the uniquely human capacities for resilience and positive change.

References:

1.    Positive Psychology – A practical Guide – By Bridget Grenville-Cleave

2.    www.ExistentialPsychology.Org

Goals

We have all heard about “goals” in our working life. It always referred to short term goals, long term goals pertaining either to our company or to our careers. But have we really thought about goals for our life? Even if we have, perhaps it is desultory without any concrete action plans to achieve them. Even if we put forth efforts to achieve them, they may also be sporadic with insidious statements like “go with the flow”, a euphemistic expression for being rudderless and drifting as it were. If this is so, are there really “goals” for us human beings?

In this vast expanse of Universe, spanning across millions of light years, it may sound conceited to claim that man is the crown of creation. Nevertheless, taking our planet alone into consideration, man with his evolved intellect and other faculties like speech, comprehension, imagination etc., may, with due humility, claim such a distinction. If that is so, then how different are we from animals that live by instinct alone? Our goals and purpose in life distinguish us from animal kingdom. Each one of us may have many goals – one wants to enter into the Guinness book of world records for living in a pit filled with snakes for several days while another wants to jump from 30,000 feet without a parachute! Some want name and fame, while others want to amass wealth! There may be as many goals as there are people. Likewise, even for the same person, the goals may vary depending on his stage of life – as a child to a senior citizen. However, our scriptures point out that despite innumerable goals of mankind, they can all be classified into four categories. They are Artha, Kama, Dharma and Moksha – generally termed as “Purushartha.”

Artha – means wealth indicating all forms of wealth which are meant for one’s own security so that we can safeguard ourselves from diseases, suffering, hunger, thirst etc., This is required for basic survival – generally called food, clothing and shelter. In Sanskrit it is called “duhkha-nivrutti” meaning ‘freedom from pain”. Man being man, does not stop with these basics but embellishes them with types of dishes, varieties of homes and designer dresses to fulfill these basic needs!

Kama – which generally means desires is also about entertainment for our enjoyment. We listen to music, watch TV (not to forget our mobile with its WhatsApp messages and FB!), travel, read and so on so forth. These are also innumerable and catering to the myriad tastes of mankind. But fundamentally, this necessarily comes after Artha for we think of pleasures only after our basic security is taken care of.

Dharma – this is also called ‘Punyam’ or the invisible favourable factor or ‘Adrishtam’. Hindus believe in re-birth and therefore they not only worry about current life but also about their future birth and also the well being of their progeny. So they would want to pursue a dharmic way of life – noble activities prescribed in the scriptures – so that they acquire ‘Punyam’ in this birth. Such a Dharmic way of life contributes to their Artha and Kama also in legitimate ways. They also get a better life in their next birth.

Most of the humans pursue these three goals only (commonly referred to as ‘Preyas’). While it may not be bad at all to pursue these, we need to analyze the limitations of these three goals. First and foremost, while these goals are wonderful and worth pursuing, there is lot of pain, effort and competition in acquiring these. For example, if one has built a palatial house, that person always talks about the time, effort, hassles in obtaining permits and money spent on building that house! And ultimately it is also subject to decay, just as a scratch on a new car hurts us so much! There is no gain without a corresponding loss. Therefore, acquisition involves pain. Secondly, despite all acquisitions, we have dissatisfaction. Despite huge amounts of money we have, we feel insecure that inflation may eat it away. And our satisfaction is always in the future, starting right from childhood thinking that I will be satisfied once I complete schooling etc. And finally, these goals are addictive and we become dependent on them. Once you own a car, you cannot even travel by a bus on one day when your car has gone for servicing. The more we are dependent, the more we suffer. And what I can I say about our dependency on mobile phones these days?

Hence the scriptures advocate that, while there is nothing wrong in pursuing these three, we need to transcend these three and aim for the fourth goal which is “Freedom” or “Liberation”. Freedom from what is the question. It is freedom from all types of dependence on external factors. In other words, we should not depend on any external factor for our security – like people around me, money I possess etc.  Discovering happiness in ourselves, discovering security in ourselves is called Moksha or ‘Shreyas’. And also it is in our ignorance that we pursue permanent fulfillment through these impermanent objects that causes suffering. So ‘Moksha’ also implies freedom from suffering. What happens then is, if we do not depend on them, we need not bother about going head over heels in acquiring them. If they come to us, it is fine; else also it is fine. Their arrival is fine; their departure is fine too. This includes everything you can think of and this inner freedom is called Moksha and the highest Purushartha. This is also called ‘Parama Purushartha’ (Prime Purushartha) because there is no further pursuit once this is fulfilled. That is why when you do an archana in a temple, the priest chants “dharmaartha Kama Moksha chaturvidha Phala Purushartha siddyartham” indicating that “may all your purushartha’s be fulfilled.”

This is a topic that generates lot of discussion. Whether Dharma precedes Artha or whether all the four are inter-dependent are all deliberated in great depth by all learned scholars. I have followed the lectures of my Guru Swami Paramarthananda and mistakes, if any, in my narration are solely attributable to me.  

In Psychology, when the entire community was a bit down by the theories floated by Sigmund Freud and other neo-Freudians, humanist psychologists like Abraham Maslow brought a whiff of fresh air focusing on the positive aspects of the human psyche. He postulated his ‘hierarchy of needs’ which most of you might know. They are Physiological needs, Safety needs, Belonging needs, Esteem needs and finally Self-actualization. Does this roughly correspond to what our scriptures stated thousands of years ago?

And finally, can a ‘Liberated man’ be equated to a ‘Self actualized person’? Well, maybe it is a topic of discussion for some other time!