Learning to Live in the Positive - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Learning to Live inthe Positive

Introduction and Lecture 1

Daniel B. Lord, Ph.D.

Anchorage, Alaska

Introduction – The Four Concentric Circles

Outermost – the Soma

Then the Mind

Then the Moral Realm

Then the Spiritual

The Birth of Modern Psychiatry

Medicine towards end of 1800s

Internal medicine -- Hippocrates,

etc.

Surgery – barbers,

etc.

Neurology -- Descartes,

etc.

Dualism, but no model of mind

Scientific Discovery of the Psyche-1

Concept of

Functional Delta

Manifestations

Pathological signs minimal, symptoms and illness behavior high

Pathological signs high, symptoms and illness behavior minimal

The Scientific Discovery of Psyche-2

Hysteria as excessive excitability of psyche (mind)

Particular configuration of symptoms, no corresponding pathophysiological signs

Not understood as denial or malingering behavior

Charcot – acceptance of hysteria as a legitimate illness

“Careful taxonomist”

Lectures attended by Janet, Freud, others

Search for Cause of Hysteria

Janet (France), Freud and Breuer (Vienna, Austria)

Reputed as careful listeners of patients’ stories

Freud described human reality consisting of two realms: somatic and psychological

Cf.

Descartes

Psyche as

epiphenomenon

of somatic processes

Model of mind as materialistic and reductionist

Reactions to “Soul-less” Psychology

Szasz and

Myth of Mental Illness

Highly critical of psychic determinism, psychiatry

Frank and

Persuasion and Healing

Emphasized role of hope in psychotherapy

Third Force in Psychology

(Maslow, Rogers, etc.)

Emphasized health, personal development

Advent of positive psychology –

revolution

Seligman and Czikszentmihalyi (2000)

Freud’s Concept of Mind (1896)

Basically

somatopsychic

Problems

Rendered human reality as ontologically equivalent to all other animals

Human consciousness reduced to an effect, no unique powers

Psychoanalysis and hopelessness

Psychic determinism

Hard

(Nature),

Soft

(Nurture)

‘Abdu’-l-Bahá (1908) – Three Forces

Nature

Heredity, biological and genetic forces

Nurture

Social, educational and environmental forces

Mystical forces

Unique to humankind

Associated with “rational soul”

Possible Soul, Mind, and Body Interactions from Three Forces Perspective

Analogy of light; both material and non-material

“Subtle Body”

(eastern mysticism, Jung)

Conceptualized as energy currents

Disturbances:

somatoform disorders, psychosomatic illness, PTSD

Sympathetic nervous system, neurotransmitters

Similarities to light

Developing a Positive Outlook

Optimism also as light, seeing positive over the negative

Darkness (negative) is absence of light (positive)

Expect the positive, but put yourself in neutral

“Success” is overrated

Conceal your own good deeds, but reveal your mistakes

Story in Gospel of St. Matthew

Challenges to a Positive Outlook

Implies personal formulation of clear meaning of life

Making decisions more consciously

Optimism and pessimism as equally “justifiable”

Good and bad do not belong on sample plane

Optimism not “putting one’s head in the sand”

Rationalization technique of “calculated pessimism”

Negativity spreads more quickly than positivity

Reflects insufficient belief in power of positive

Scenario – positive outlook needed in relationships

Mrs. Wilson is often embarrassed to go with her husband to meet acquaintances who do not come up to his expectations. For this reason she never takes him to see her relatives She finds that he is not really interested in other people He constantly interrupts, puts them down, demolishes them with his logic, and almost never yields a point -- a common failing she finds in academics. If the people they have gone to visit have any humor or spirit, or if he believes they are ‘his wife’s sort of people’, he will sit there for hours on end, not saying a word unless he is directly spoken to. Even then he only mumbles.

His rules of conduct seem to be that either he likes someone, in which case he can be nice, or he doesn’t, in which case he has no qualms in making it quite clear. Though his wife makes clear distinctions for herself between people who are genuine in their friendship and those who are merely polite, he accuses her of being nice to everyone. When they get home, she is angry with him, but he tells her how hypocritical she is. His grumpiness annoys her, and other people have mentioned his ill humor to her..