Positive Psychology: An Introduction
And Freud's Dangerous Mistakes

Positive psychology obviously studies positive emotions. Let's look at this emerging field and see how it deals with symptoms of positive emotions rather than the underlying cause.

There's a major problem here...

If happiness is so important to us, why has traditional psychology spent so much time and effort on studying negative emotions instead of positive emotions? And why did positive psychology emerge so late in the study and research of emotions?

For two main reasons:

1. Negative emotions take precedence in the human brain because they're so important to ensure human survival. Scientists are obviously also humans, and what they've been preoccupied with reflects their (and their subjects) human nature.
2. Negative emotions are easier to study because they're largely automatic and instinctive (fight-or-flight/anger-or-fear based emotions). Positive emotions require effort, and a clinical setting isn’t very conducive to feeling good. In addition, true happiness is rare and few subjects are therefore available.

Martin Seligman, generally acknowledged as the founding father of positive psychology, looks beyond misconceptions and reminds us in one of his books, Authentic Happiness, to dismiss Freud and his followers' notion of emotional hydraulics.

Dismiss These Freudian Mistakes Now

The flawed theory of hydraulics postulates that venting emotions decrease their presence, which, in practice, equals pumping so much air into a balloon that somehow it deflates, or pops and miraculously rebuilds itself.

But your brain is not a balloon and you only have one of them.

Venting negative emotions does not release these emotions from your system. Anger management where you scream and shout and let it all out is useless, damaging to your cardiovascular system, and helps condition fear or anger-based (fight-or-flight) responses in your brain.

Similar 'balloon-therapy' of depressed persons has on several occasions caused increased severity of depression and even suicides. In our pursuit of happiness, let's thoroughly dismiss another related worthless Freudian notion because it still seems to exert a poisonous influence...

Doomed by Childhood?

Contrary to Freud's teachings, humans are not doomed by childhood events.

Childhood events only determine adulthood if a person chooses to believe that misconception and continues to nurture the associated negative emotions.

Putting the two Freudian notions together, imagine adults repeatedly being led through and encouraged to express traumatic childhood events in order to minimize and release the events' detrimental impact...

Risky Business!

Placing too much emphasis on one single authority equals a high risk of bias, which is risky business to a field of science. Through interconnectedness, the risk may hurt generations of specialized professionals, as well as the people relying on these authorities for help.

Throughout our long-term adaptation (evolution), humans have become well-designed beings, and they adapt remarkably well to whatever they focus on, thus allowing it to exist in their internal and external environment.

Perhaps too simple an explanation for a complicated, traumatized Freudian mind, the truth is simple and perfectly logical: Your perception at any given time equals your reality.

Positive Psychology - Symptoms, Not Cause...

• Positive experiences: the study of contentment with the past, happiness in the present, and hope for the future.
• Positive individual traits: the study of strengths and virtues.
• Positive institutions: the study of the strengths that foster better communities, such as justice, responsibility, and tolerance.

Do you see what they're studying? Are those areas truly causes of positive emotions?

No. They are symptoms (experiences and traits) and organizations - results - of the cause of positive emotions. I'm baffled by how these branches of science seem to grow so quickly that the trunk and roots get lost.

Let's not strictly rely on other authorities. Remember Freud? Blindly trusting authorities can be dangerous to your health. At least positive psychology's childhood mistakes don't mean that this emerging field is doomed for life...

So what is the cause of happiness - the root and soil of positive psychology? It can be summed up in one word: Compassion. The science of compassion proves it.

Most importantly - and firstly - to ensure your happiness, you must show compassion for yourself.

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