In the last INPM newsletter, I introduced Kazimierz Dąbrowski and briefly reviewed the positive psychology approach he used in defining mental health. The healthy personality is traditionally defined by adjustment to one’s social and cultural norms (how well one fits in) and, in today’s world, being happy by being able to satisfy one’s basic needs […]
Van Tongeren, D. R., & Showalter Van Tongeren, S. A. (2020). The courage to suffer: A new clinical framework for life’s greatest crises. West Conshohocken, PA: Templeton Press. This book provides an “existential positive psychology framework” (p. 3) for mental health clinicians whose clients are struggling with issues that have no solution or hope of […]
“So if you want to know the truth about the universe, about the meaning of life, and about your own identity, the best place to start is by observing suffering and exploring what it is.” Yuval Noha Harari, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century Today, we often see suffering as unnecessary or unfair. Pharmaceutical advertisements […]
Those two words – integrity and honesty – remind me first of all of my grand-father: A jurisconsult, father of 14 children, throughout his life he has always emphasized honesty and character strength.
The value of empathy is widely recognized. Both anecdotal sources and empirical research provide evidence for its positive effects. The renowned Viennese psychiatrist, Alfred Adler, noted that to have empathy is “to see with the eyes of another, to hear with the ears of another, to feel with the heart of another.” This description is markedly different from “sympathy,” in which there is distance between the observer and the experiencer.
The most interesting thing about generosity – and one thing I am just now learning – is that there is a generosity at work in receiving as well as giving.
The First Precept is born from the awareness that lives everywhere are being destroyed. We see the suffering caused by the destruction of life, and we undertake to cultivate compassion and use it as a source of energy for the protection of people, animals, plants, and minerals.
Sometimes people are able to recognize their higher purpose or potential for having greater meaning in their lives because they feel moved by their own intuition. Individuals experience their intuition when they have a deeper sense of inner wisdom as to what actions they should be doing.
At first I listened carefully but time passed and I began to get used to the quiet. But it wasn’t quiet, the air was full of sound. I began to turn my attention to what I came to call, the music of the day or indeed the music of the moment.
Mainstream psychology is not concerned with greed, or excessive desires, as a morbidity that can lead to emotive disorders and mental suffering. Instead, it hypothesizes that the gratification of desires and wants is a necessary condition for mental health and happiness.