PSYCH 3BA3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Four Noble Truths, Defence Mechanisms, Peak Experience
17 Mar 2017
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Positive psychology: contentment with the past, happiness in the present, and hope for the future. The good life = the happy life = functioning well as a person = virtuous (nothing in excess nor deficiency) Moral virtue: subordinate carnal appetites to reason. Life is a struggle between desires and constraint. Mental health is the ability to love and work. Our highest motivation is to realize the self archetype into our own personality. Because individuation and transcendence occur at the same time, everyone is self- actualizing (rather than self-actualized). Self-actualization is the highest motivation, achieved by very few. The self-actualized individual has many positive qualities. The eight-fold way is the path toward self-actualization. Fromm: biophilia (love for humanity and nature), independence, and freedom. Martin seligman: before wwii, psychology had three goals: curing mental illness, helping people lead more productive and fulfilling lives, identifying and nurturing exceptional talent. After wwii, the focus of psychology became curing mental illness.
