Can happiness be taught?
Can happiness be taught?
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幸福可以教吗？
作者：
M. Seligman
Dædalus Spring 2004自第二次世界大战以来，心理学领域主要关注痛苦。心理学家现在可以相当精确地测量抑郁症、精神分裂症和愤怒等以前模糊的概念。我们已经发现了相当多的关于这些疾病如何在生活中发展，关于它们的遗传学，它们的神经化学，以及它们的心理基础。最重要的是，我们可以减轻一些疾病。根据我最近的统计，几十种主要精神疾病中有14种可以通过药物或特殊的心理治疗有效治疗，其中两种可以治愈。不幸的是，多年来，人们对减轻使生活痛苦的状态的兴趣已经盖过了对提高使生活有价值的状态的努力。然而，这种学科偏见并没有阻止公众关注生活中什么是最好的。大多数人都希望生活中有更多积极的情绪。大多数人都想建立自己的优势，而不仅仅是尽量减少自己的弱点。大多数人都希望生活充满意义。我所说的积极心理学是关于三种不同的幸福生活的科学研究，这三种幸福生活与这三种愿望相对应：快乐生活，美好生活和有意义的生活。快乐的生活是关于积极的情绪。美好的生活是关于积极的品质-其中最重要的是力量和美德，但也有天赋，如智力和运动能力。有意义的生活是关于积极的制度，如民主，强大的家庭和自由调查。积极的制度支持美德，美德反过来又支持积极的情绪。2在其范围内，积极心理学明显不同于传统的心理学主题：精神障碍，发育迟缓，困扰的生活，暴力，犯罪，偏见，创伤，愤怒，抑郁和治疗。
Dædalus Spring 2004 Since World War II, the 1⁄2eld of psychology has largely focused on suffering. Psychologists now measure such formerly fuzzy concepts as depression, schizophrenia, and anger with respectable precision. We have discovered a fair amount about how these disorders develop across life, about their genetics, their neurochemistry, and their psychological underpinnings. Best of all, we can relieve some of the disorders. By my last count fourteen of the several dozen major mental illnesses could be effectively treated–and two of them cured–with medications or speci1⁄2c psychotherapies.1 Unfortunately, for many years interest in relieving the states that make life miserable has overshadowed efforts to enhance the states that make life worth living. This disciplinary bias has not preempted the public’s concern with what is best in life, however. Most people want more positive emotion in their lives. Most people want to build their strengths, not just to minimize their weaknesses. Most people want lives imbued with meaning. What I have called Positive Psychology concerns the scienti1⁄2c study of the three different happy lives that correspond to these three desires: the Pleasant Life, the Good Life, and the Meaningful Life. The Pleasant Life is about positive emotions. The Good Life is about positive traits– foremost among them the strengths and the virtues, but also the talents, such as intelligence and athleticism. The Meaningful Life is about positive institutions, such as democracy, strong families, and free inquiry. Positive institutions support the virtues, which in turn support the positive emotions.2 In its scope, then, Positive Psychology diverges markedly from the traditional subject matter of psychology: mental disorders, developmental stunting, troubled lives, violence, criminality, prejudice, trauma, anger, depression, and therapy.