Behaviorists, Skinner, Watson

Posted on November 11, 2010 by wpx_beyondou

Behaviorists

FAQ

Q: What is the difference between your therapeutic approach and that of behaviorists who emphasize personality change by focusing on changing actions?

A: Unlike Skinner, Watson, and other behaviorists who emphasize behavioral elements that bring about desired change, the Lifetrack approach developed by Dr. Yukio Ishizuka puts equal weight on cognition, emotion, and action.

Individuals, when rating themselves on the Lifetrack scale, are encouraged to consciously improve how they think, feel, and act about critical areas in their lives that contribute to psychological health, often overcoming their emotional resistance.

In Lifetrack, change occurs through changes in an individual’s thoughts, feelings and actions.  Focusing on cognition, affect or behavior alone can lead psychologists to grossly mis-interpret and reduce human beings to only one aspect.   When this is done to the extreme, supposed ‘remedies’ may often do more harm than good.

(Upper photo B. F. Skinner, photo on left of John Watson)

Copyright © 2010 Lifetrack Corporation

Visit the Positive Mental Health Foundation to support a study of human beings at their best, happiest, and most creative form.  Link to us to promote health and happiness.

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Behaviorists, Skinner, Watson
Dr. Yukio Ishizuka, a Japanese psychiatrist discusses behaviorists, Skinner and Watson and how lifetrack therapy puts equal weight on cognition, emotion and action.

http://www.PositiveMentalHealthFoundation.com

 

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Current Psychology

Posted on November 10, 2010 by wpx_beyondou

FAQ

Q: I have heard of preventive mental health, but not of positive mental health. Why the new term?

A: Positive mental health is different from preventive mental health, which entails attending to risk factors. Positive mental health does not suggest that all disorders are preventable or curable by early intervention. While many may be helped (and hence necessary to educate), we should also recognize that it is often the strongest who push themselves beyond a previous best.  It is the most persistant amongst us, who dares go beyond the point where others are all too willing to abandon.

Hence rather than believing one can overcome any crisis with a greater sense of self, intimacy and achievement, or that we ought to be superhuman, a positive mental health approach focuses on using a crisis or setback as an opportunity for fundamental change.

Using Crisis as an Opportunity for Fundamental Change

In crisis, the objective of Lifetrack therapy is not to directly decrease the symptoms of stress or disease, but to actively increase positive factors in the normal cycle of life which includes natural ups and downs.  The focus is on building health and happiness beyond a previous best level of adjustment despite symptoms of distress.

Initially, building health in areas we care about the most (love, work and play) may in defensive individuals actually increase symptoms of stress.  However by focusing on the good, rather than decreasing the bad (objective subjective), symptoms often disappear, and a new healthier pattern of coping emerges.  An experience of happiness or well-being in one’s self, intimacy and achievement spheres changes the person from within.

Copyright © 2010 Lifetrack Corporation

Visit the Positive Mental Health Foundation to support a study of human beings at their best, happiest, and most creative form.  Link to us to promote health and happiness.

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Current Psychology, Positive Mental Health, Preventive Mental Health
A Japanese psychiatrist discusses a current psychology of health and happiness, positive mental health, and preventive mental health.

http://www.PositiveMentalHealthFoundation.com

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Freud Psychology

Posted on November 9, 2010 by wpx_beyondou

FAQ

Q: Are you a psychoanalyst? How does your approach differ from psychoanalysis?

A: The Lifetrack positive mental health approach differs significantly from psychoanalytic theory in that its focus is not on the diseased mind, but on the healthy mind.

Successful therapy is defined not as the absence of disease, but the presence of health and happiness.

Although my training in psychiatry taught me how to reduce or contain symptoms diagnosed as diseases or mental disorders, it had not helped me understand health to the same degree. “Successful psychological adjustment” was not better understood or practiced by traditional mental health experts than by ordinary people who have never heard of sophisticated psychological theories.

Departing from Freud Psychology to a Psychology of Health

If I was to be effective helping people, I knew I had to change the way I practiced therapy.

I stopped being a passive observer of patients divulging problem after problem.  Instead, speaking more than 70 percent of the time, I challenged what I was taught.

I actively tested and sought new insights on the mind.  To improve, revise and test concepts and their utility, I defined what I meant by self, intimacy and achievement, as well as a science of health, or a better understanding of wellbeing and symptoms of distress.

I used terms patients would use, and invented a simple means to measure or quantify well-being, distress or intimacy.

“And despite all that, I was surprised to find that people kick, scream, and yell all the way to well-being…”

It is only through persuasion, humor, perseverance, and a concerted effort that some individuals, according to their own Lifetrack self-rating, achieve and surpass a previous best level of adjustment or well-being.

The Lifetrack active approach to therapy differs both in substance and style to the classical psychoanalytic approach, which focuses on neurosis and bringing the unconscious to the fore through the method of free association.

The Lifetrack approach is human intensive (involving two-hour sessions).

During the first session, a case history is taken about their past and a key rapport formed. Patients are presented with an analysis of their problem.  I lay out the goal, method, and process of therapy; the expected course of therapy; and the required time and cost of therapy, which typically lasts from 3 to 6 months.  Emphasis in therapy is placed on changing the structure of one’s personality or mind through a process of breakthrough intimacy with someone who is already in the patient’s life — usually a spouse or equivalent important relationship.  Ideally, that person stays in the patient’s life long after therapy is terminated.

While for Freud sex was primordial in intimacy, for Dr. Yukio Ishizuka it is either 1/3 or 1/9 of the total experience of intimacy or closeness (see love definition).

Success is defined as surpassing a previous best by several times over.  The process of growth is focused and the graphs make feedback immediate, making therapy usually shorter than traditional approaches.

Visual models of Lifetrack concepts, as well as daily graphic tracking of patients’ subjective self-rating on parameters that build health accelerate the process of growth in their self, intimacy and achievement spheres.  The graphs, the therapist’s interpretation, and the patient’s life partner helps the individual overcome initial resistance and a fear of the unknown (greater happiness).

Freud insisted that health is love and work.  Dr. Ishizuka went further.  He defines and measures love (love definition), work (work definition) and  self  (self definition).  Through breakthrough intimacy, Dr. Ishizuka helps individuals make a fundamental breakthrough in their personality structure.

This personality change allows an individual to accommodate, balance and enjoy higher levels of self, intimacy and achievement.  Often, when health is built, the stress symptoms that lead individuals to seek help often disappear altogether or a reduced to only small and occasional occurrences.

Copyright © 2010 Lifetrack Corporation

Visit the Positive Mental Health Foundation to support a study of human beings at their best, happiest, and most creative form.  Link to us to promote health and happiness.

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Freud Psychology, Lifetrack Therapy, Current Psychology
A Japanese psychiatrist discusses Freud psychology, psychoanalysis and its differences with Lifetrack psychology, a psychology based on happiness and health.

http://www.PositiveMentalHealthFoundation.com

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Abraham Maslow Hierarchy of Needs

Posted on November 9, 2010 by wpx_beyondou

FAQ

Q: I know about the Abraham Maslow hierarchy of needs. Are the three spheres an explanation of psychological needs? What is the difference between your work Maslow theories?

A: Maslow is interesting because he studied healthy and creative individuals.

He is often remembered for his hierarchy of needs.  That is that the individual has a variety of needs that begin with physiological needs (the lowest on the pyramid) and once satisfied, evolve all the way to self-actualization (top of pyramid).

In Abraham Maslow’s model, the level of need moves upwards as soon as the previous level of need is satisfied.  In this model, physiological needs precede psychological needs. In the Lifetrack experience, physiological and psychological needs can co-exist; a hierarchy is not rigid nor necessarily representative of human experience.

Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs also does not allow for tradeoffs. It mixes physical and psychological needs. According to Dr. Yukio Ishizuka, the need for self, intimacy, and achievement can be creatively met in myriad ways. In the short run, tradeoffs among these psychological needs are a sign of flexibility and health.

Trade-Offs of Self, Intimacy and Achievement

The ability to make tradeoffs, however, does not imply that these needs are merely desires, not critical elements of a healthy life. Long term frustration in any one of these needs can result in distress and breakdown.

Another important difference from Maslow is that the model of positive mental health provides a means to understand the same individual at different points in their cycle of life, whether in dire distress or optimal health. This differs with Maslow’s studies of self-actualization, which focus on historical figures such as Lincoln, Jefferson, Thoreau, Einstein, and others as ideal candidates.

Although Maslow contributed much to the field by balancing the darker side of the human psyche with an understanding of love, well-being, and exuberance, some say he fell short of integrating the two halves; the positive and the negative (see criteria for models of positive mental health Jahoda). In this sense, the Lifetrack positive mental health approach may represent a middle ground, integrating the mind (or personality) both in distress and in well-being.

Copyright © 2010 Lifetrack Corporation

Visit the Positive Mental Health Foundation to support a study of human beings at their best, happiest, and most creative form.  Link to us to promote health and happiness.

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Maslow Theories, Abraham Maslow Hierarchy of Needs, Maslow
Abraham Maslow hierarchy of needs and Maslow theories are compared by a Japanese Harvard psychiatrist to a new model of psychological needs or aspirations.
http://www.PositiveMentalHealthFoundation.com

 

Posted in Positive Mental Health | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Popular Children Books

Posted on November 8, 2010 by wpx_beyondou

A list of Popular Children Books promoting Happiness, Positive Mental Health, Optimism, and Social Learning:

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss and Crockett Johnson

The Quiet Book by Deborah Underwood

 

 

 

Ish by Peter H. Reynolds

The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf

The Little Prince by Antoine de St. Exupery

 

 

Mom, Says, Dad Says, Nat Says: Other by Nathalie Ishizuka

 

The World is Your Oyster by Tamara James

 

 

Little Yellow and Little Blue by Leo Lionni

 

 

 

What a Tantrum! by Mireille d’Allance

 

 

Chez moi c’est la Guerre by Fatima Sharafedinne

 

These books include some of my favorites, more to come.  I am gathering a list of books that express ideas about happiness, optimism, love, being different and enjoying one’s differences, bullying, spiritual growth, fear and change, time, resilience.

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Bullying Effects and Children

Posted on November 8, 2010 by wpx_beyondou

A Book on Bullying Effects, Stress Children, Children Confidence, Happiness while being Different

The challenge and necessity to remain an OTHER and ‘one of a kind’ when it is easier to blend in or ‘blend out.’  This book helps you recognize bullying, and to turn bullies upside down and inside out, until they start laughing with you.

Mom Says, Dad Says, Nat Says: Other, illustrated & written by Nathalie Ishizuka, 60 color pages soft cover, ISBN 1-59113-741-1. $24.95 published by Booklocker 2005, visit www.natsays.com

Press for the book Mom Says, Dad Says, Nat Says: Other

A Book for Children and their Parents Based on Health, Happiness
Other is for young children (and their parents) and falls into categories on health for happiness, optimism, learning strategies, character building (buffer against bullying effects), social skills, stress children, and parenting.

Help Overcome Bullying.  Short Descriptions for Links:

Short Summary for General Public:

Mom Says, Dad Says, Nat Says: Other

A beautifully illustrated book for adults and kids who have felt different for any reason. Drawing from both the east and west, this heartwarming tale shows us how to overcome the ‘us’ vs. ‘them’ mentality through surprising coping strategies to counter bullying effects.

Mom Says, Dad Says, Nat Says: Other, illustrated & written by Nathalie Ishizuka, 60 color pages soft cover, ISBN 1-59113-741-1. $24.95 published by Booklocker 2005, visit www.natsays.com

Short Summary for Stress Children & Bullying Effects:   Mom Says, Dad Says, Nat Says: Other 

This entertaining illustrated health series reads much like St. Exupery’s The Little Prince, but with a different message. Other is about the art of being different, what we wished our Mom had told us, what our Dad may not have known, and what our own head and heart might still have difficulty grasping. Unless, like the characters in the book, your Mom has a European ‘savoir vivre’ that is larger than life, your Dad is a Zen Japanese Harvard trained psychiatrist on health, and you like the American author Nat, have spent years trying to integrate both your mom’s heart and your dad’s head.  A must to read as your child follows his or her heart.  Effective in countering unwanted bullying effects.

Mom Says, Dad Says, Nat Says: Other, illustrated & written by Nathalie Ishizuka, 60 color pages soft cover, ISBN 1-59113-741-1. $24.95 published by Booklocker 2005, visit www.natsays.com

Short Summary for Expats, Expat, Expatriates: Mom Says, Dad Says, Nat Says: Other 

Mom Says, Dad Says, Nat Says: Other will be treasured by the international crowd who have not always fit neatly into any one category. Adults who have traveled, married a foreigner, lived the life of an ex-pat or grown up bi-culturally will be memorably moved by the coping strategies of the tri-cultural penguin.

Mom Says, Dad Says, Nat Says: Other, illustrated & written by Nathalie Ishizuka, 60 color pages soft cover, ISBN 1-59113-741-1. $24.95 published by Booklocker 2005, visit www.natsays.com

Short Summary for Happa, Ameriasian, Nisei, Eurasian:  Mom Says, Dad Says, Nat Says: Other 

Dad is Japanese. Mom is French. Nat, she is a Happa, Ameriasian, Nisei, Eurasian or more simply put an ‘Other’. This heartwarming entertaining book shows us how to enjoy growing up as an ‘Other.’ Through surprising and highly effective strategies Nat shows us how to enjoy an identity crisis, a different physical appearance (Nat had spent hours pinching her nose to make it less flat with little success), language (looking Japanese did not mean Nat spoke it fluently), a strange sounding name, and how to deal with racism from all ethnic groups including your own — if you are lucky enough that such a category exists.  A must to counter bullying effects and cope with stress children experience as they define and re-define their identity.

Mom Says, Dad Says, Nat Says: Other, illustrated & written by Nathalie Ishizuka, 60 color pages soft cover, ISBN 1-59113-741-1. $24.95 published by Booklocker 2005, visit www.natsays.com

Short Summary for Multiracial, Bi-cultural, Multicultural: Mom Says, Dad Says, Nat Says: Other 

In addition to all the normal identity crisis and pressure that kids and adults go through growing up, this beautiful and heartwarming book helps multiracial kids deal with their differences including their physical appearance, language, a strange sounding name, identity, and how one deals with racism from all ethnic groups including ones own -all with great wit, humor, and surprising effectiveness.

Mom Says, Dad Says, Nat Says: Other, illustrated & written by Nathalie Ishizuka, 60 color pages soft cover, ISBN 1-59113-741-1. $24.95 published by Booklocker 2005, visit www.natsays.com

Short Summary for Children & Parents ‘Because Growing up is Difficult’: Mom Says, Dad Says, Nat Says: Other 

“Mom says its cute to be small: Dad says Napoleon was small. But none of that helped.” This book is for Mom, Dad and children who grow up feeling that they are a little different – be it too small, tall, big, or some other ‘label’ that makes them stand out from the crowd. The book reads much like the St. Exupery’s The Little Prince, but is about optimal health, what we wished our Mom had told us, what our Dad may not have known, and what our own head and heart will enjoy discovering over and over.  A must to counter bullying effects and cope with stress children experience with peers.

Mom Says, Dad Says, Nat Says: Other, illustrated & written by Nathalie Ishizuka, 60 color pages soft cover, ISBN 1-59113-741-1. $24.95 published by Booklocker 2005, visit www.natsays.com

Short Summary for Psychology and Mental Health, Stress Children, Bullying Effects: Mom Says, Dad Says, Nat Says: OtherThis heartwarming illustrated book is for busy adults and kids who have felt picked on for being different (and who hasn’t), or constrained by a label (their own or someone else’s). Child psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and teachers will also get a lift from its freshness. Through the surprising coping strategies in the book, being different, can suddenly become a formidable stepping-stone to health. 

Mom Says, Dad Says, Nat Says: Other, illustrated & written by Nathalie Ishizuka, 60 color pages soft cover, ISBN 1-59113-741-1. $24.95 published by Booklocker 2005, visit www.natsays.com

Press Packet: Downloadable PDF light
To download a complete press packet light for web (300k) download other.press.light(Cover, Press Release, Review, Synopsis)

Press Packet: Downloadable PDF heavy for print
To download a complete press packet for print quality, HEAVY(6MG)download other.press.print (Cover, Press Release, Review, Synopsis)

Downloadable ThumbNails for Links
Cover Book Mom Says, Dad Says, Nat Says: Other by Nathalie Ishizuka

To download a thumbnail picture of Other Book Cover (for web) click

To download a thumbnail picture of Author (for web) click

To download a banner for link to www.natsays.comwww.natsays.com

www.natsays.com

Nathalie Ishizuka is a Franco-Japanese American who has lived, worked and studied on three continents. Her innovative interdisciplinary approach integrating the psychology of individuals, organizations, and the nation state has lead her to work with people from many fields and to receive the George A. Plimpton Fellowship for the study of social, economic, and political institutions.  She is a member of SCWBI. 

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Mom Says, Dad Says, Nat Says: Other, illustrated & written by Nathalie Ishizuka, 60 color pages soft cover, ISBN 1-59113-741-1. $24.95 published by Booklocker 2005, visit www.natsays.com

Visit the Positive Mental Health Foundation to support a study of human beings at their best, happiest, and most creative form.  Link to us to promote health and happiness

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Carl Rogers Psychology

Posted on November 8, 2010 by wpx_beyondou

FAQ

Q: I have heard of the work of Carl Rogers on personality and have admired it considerably. How is your approach similar or different?

A: Carl Rogers and Yukio Ishizuka agree that the goal is Self-Actualization

Carl Rogers is renown for his work on Self-Actualization, which he viewed as an internal biological force to develop one’s capacity to the fullest.  Human beings, according to Rogers, strive for optimal health and require a resilience in the face of adversity.  Such resilience is fostered or nurtured by unconditional positive regard (a form of unconditional love) which can be experienced as a child from the relationship with one’s parents.

With unconditional positive regard, the individual has a capacity to discover his ‘true self’ what he or she is meant to become.  This ‘true self’ can be different from the ‘ideal self’ imposed by society or outside expectations including one’s parents.  When the gap between one’s ‘true self’ and ‘ideal self’ becomes too great or incongruent, the person’s defenses may be triggered.

Dr. Yukio Ishizuka, like Rogers, has developed a theory based on self-actualization, in which the individual strives to develop optimal health in three spheres of psychological existence: self, intimacy and achievement.  Like Rogers, growth is unlimited.   Growth in the Lifetrack model is frustrated by fear and can be experienced in the form of stress symptoms such as anxiety, anger, physical symptoms, depression or psychosis.

In Rogers’ work, self-actualization is a natural process.  At the same time, Rogers argues that a caretaker is needed to nurture positive regard.  In other words, unconditional positive regard is necessary for self-actualization.  In this sense, it may not be entirely automatic or may at times need a strong boost.

In Ishizuka’s work, fear prohibits the natural state of man to be self-actualizing or automatic.  While we may each desire love or success to be happy, fear impedes us to develop to our fullest potential.  As much as we may want to love or be loved, we also develop a fear of losing love through death, deception, illusion or disappointment. Hence, Ishizuka confronts such fear directly by immediately working on a close intimate relationship where the desire and need for love is important.  In adults, this is usually found in the couple relationship.

Of the three psychological needs (self, intimacy and achievement), Ishizuka argues that inter-dependent intimacy (couple relationship) in the lay person has the greatest potential for the transformation of the individual towards self-actualization.  His life’s work and therapy is based on the process of using breakthrough intimacy to trigger fundamental human change in all spheres of life: self, intimacy and achievement.

A: Both theories of Self-Actualization are primarily clinical based from intensive work with patients

Ishizuka’s theory, like that of Rogers, is primarily a clinical one, based on years of experience with patients.  Like the humanist Carl Rogers, the positive mental health Lifetrack model was inspired, developed, and tested in daily clinical practice with demanding patients. It evolved from the need to help patients with their lives improve their overall psychological adjustment. Patients inspired the model of positive mental health, put it to the test, and challenged it daily for the last 35 years.

A: Both Carl Rogers and Yukio Ishizuka’s model understand the role of an effective therapist towards promoting change, but Ishizuka pushes it further.

Much like Rogers’ approach, Lifetrack therapy recognizes that the relationship with the therapist is an essential lever for change.  For Rogers the effectiveness of the therapist depended on his or her ability for congruence (genuineness, honesty), empathy, and respect (unconditional positive regard).  A good therapist could aid in developing unconditional positive regard, bolstering the individuals path towards self-actualization.

Lifetrack, agrees with Rogers.  However, Lifetrack therapy goes a bit further in that the therapist can talk as much as 70% of the time.  In addition,  Dr. Yukio Ishizuka believes that a close interdependent relationship, such as that with a partner or spouse, is even more critical to fundamental change and long-term well-being than a therapist.

To put it in Rogerian terms, unconditional positive regard is bolstered most effectively through an inter-dependent couple relationship where each individual learns to accept the other ‘as is.’  This fundamental human relationship has the capacity to change the individual and nurture positive regard far more than an intervention by a therapist.

Hence, in Lifetrack therapy, rather than make the therapist the object of the close relationship, the Lifetrack approach helps the patient to become significantly closer to a person who can stay in his or her life long after therapy has ended.  When a partner is available, this process may begin from the first or second session.  When no partner is present, the individual is encouraged to be open to the possibility of becoming closer to someone in three adult dimensions of intimacy (emotional, intellectual-social, and physical-sexual).  The reason is simple: transformation through intimacy creates the greatest lever for fundamental change.  It seems to be in the Lifetrack experience, the fastest and most effective route.

Breakthrough Intimacy:  Most Effective Route for Unconditional Positive Regard

The objective of the Lifetrack therapist is to be so successful that he or she can soon exit the picture.  The therapist succeeds when he or she has helped the patient experience a level of closeness far beyond a previous best with an important person who remains in the patient’s life long after the therapist is gone.  For this reason, the therapist often works with a couple.  Under optimal conditions (one in the couple is depressed, there is an effective therapist who can work with both, and the ‘well’ partner is willing to help), a breakthrough in all spheres of life far beyond a previous best level (self, intimacy and achievement) takes 3-6 months.

This breakthrough intimacy, provides a unique opportunity for a transformation in personality structure.  Both in the couple emerge changed as they work together to improve each of the three spheres beyond a previous best: self, intimacy and achievement.

In Rogerian terms, change has occurred due to a boost of unconditional positive regard found in a happy adult couple relationship.  This unconditional positive regard is healthier and longer lasting in impact than the role that even the best therapist could temporarily provide.

Copyright © 2010 Lifetrack Corporation

Visit the Positive Mental Health Foundation to support a study of human beings at their best, happiest, and most creative form.  Link to us to promote health and happiness.

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Carl Rogers Psychology
A Japanese Harvard trained psychiatrist discusses Carl Rogers Psychology, Lifetrack therapy, unconditional positive regard, and the therapist relationship.
http://www.PositiveMentalHealthFoundation.com

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Positive Psychology Flow and Definitions of Wellbeing

Posted on October 28, 2010 by wpx_beyondou

FAQ

Q : What is optimal adjustment in the Lifetrack model and what does this have to do with what positive psychology calls flow?

Flow and Wellbeing?

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a founding father of Positive Psychology and of the concept “Flow.”

Lifetrack is not born of the Positive Psychology movement, but admires Csikszentmihalyi for his work and hopes that modern psychiatry will follow.

FAQ to Lifetrack on similarities of flow and wellbeing:

Q : What is optimal adjustment in the Lifetrack model and what does this have to do with what positive psychology calls flow?

A : Often our definition of optimal adjustment comes from without; we think of the works of genius as visible accomplishments of inner creativity, optimal adjustment or brilliance. Sometimes that is the case, and optimal adjustment or genius is acknowledged by our society, at other times it may not.

In the Lifetrack model, one can experience optimal adjustment or be a genius in one sphere of one’s life (self, intimacy or achievement) and not in another. To experience optimal adjustment in all spheres one has to push oneself beyond a previous best level of experience self, intimacy and achievement and balance the three psychological spheres of existence at a much higher level than previously experienced.

As people achieve or surpass a previous best in any one sphere, some may feel increased energy (what positive psychology calls flow).

Flow can be experienced in the context of growing achievement, self or intimacy.  The experience of flow or a higher state of consciousness (living in the present as I understand it) much like happiness cannot be sought directly. Flow has to be experienced by pushing ourselves beyond a previous best level in our sense of self (in touch, at peace, in control), intimacy (close relationships) and achievement (relationship to the world).

Can a sharpshooter experience Flow?

Flow can be experienced in any context of full mind focus.  Hypothetically, if one is a masterful sharp shooter, then flow can be experienced on a battlefield should one become one with the task.  Similarly, in the Lifetrack model, certain elements of well-being could also be experienced through sharpshooting if the individual experienced a sense of mastery from accomplishing the task.

However, the term well-being as defined by Lifetrack positive mental health may be broader a term than flow.  It encompasses mastery, but also peace, friendliness, physical wellbeing, and happiness.  Of course, the sharpshooter could feel a sense of mastery from his task, or even ‘happiness’ for being at one’s physical peak during the mission.  Yet, the sharpshooter is unlikely to experience both peace and friendliness as he or she kills another human being — even for a presumed ‘good’ such as the defense of his or her unit, the nation-state or an ideology.

If the individual did experience both peace and friendliness as he or she killed, in the Lifetrack model he or she would be “out of touch” with the Self or not fully conscious. Killing another life–even in self-defense–gives neither a sense of peace nor friendliness. That is not to argue that self-defense is not legitimate, but that acts of violence even for some presumed good do not provide a full experience of inner wellbeing.

Positive Psychology : Flow an Ultimate Good?

Because flow could be hypothetically achieved from a large variety of activities, including one’s work as a sharpshooter, positive psychology does not define flow as an ultimate good.  Instead the end goal is the capacity to go beyond oneself and engage in the world. In other words, flow in itself will not change the world necessarily for the better.  It is the spheres of life in which we experience flow that changes life and gives meaning.

Similarly, in the Lifetrack model, what is important is not just the experience of well-being but optimal adjustment and growth in all three spheres of psychological existence (self, intimacy and achievement).  Given each person’s capacity and limitations, growth may give rise to occasional peaks of well-being as one builds self, intimacy and achievement.

Over one’s life one will re-define one’s self, intimacy and achievement spheres.  Through this growth, the circles expand and grow larger to encompass a closer relationship with an important other person such as a spouse, with others and with the world.  As the spheres expand, the definition of self, intimacy and achievement may expand to encompass more of the world.  Some may become engaged in helping a larger cause than oneself, and one’s family.  In this manner, we engage more with others and with the world defining our three spheres in a broader sense.

There is no frontier, no end point in our capacity for optimal adjustment– to be well or to love.   There is only our capacity to push ourselves a little further than where we have been before.  As we grow and our definition of self, intimacy and achievement expands; we chose to encompass the world within our spheres and a sense of  life purpose and joy arises.

Copyright © 2010 Lifetrack Corporation

Visit the Positive Mental Health Foundation to support a study of human beings at their best, happiest, and most creative form.  Link to us to promote health and happiness.

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The Future of Positive Psychology
Flow, the future of positive psychology applied to three psychological aspirations.
http://www.PositiveMentalHealthFoundation.com

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Happiness, Pleasure, Life Purpose, Wellbeing?

Posted on October 28, 2010 by wpx_beyondou

Goal Happiness?

FAQ

Q : Is the goal of Lifetrack Positive Mental Health happiness?

A: Yes, the goal of Lifetrack is happiness or wellbeing!!

Yet the means to achieve well-being and happiness is not to be mistaken with seeking pleasure.  Those who seek happiness directly through pleasure rarely find it!  Those who build self, strong intimate relationships (with others, to a spouse or equivalent, nature, God or the universe) and achievement with a great sense of life purpose often experience frequent and longer lasting peaks of wellbeing (peace, friendliness, wellbeing, physical health, mastery) throughout their lives.

Happiness and well-being are a by-product of experiencing and growing one’s three spheres of inner existence.  Happiness and well-being result when one lives fully in the present in all three spheres of life (self, one’s close relationships and achievements) with a sense of love, lightness and joy.

Happiness means different things to different people.

Some people mistake happiness as pleasure or some–more modestly–a mere release from pain.  Whatever definition you have of happiness, what remains important is not the words you use, but the experience itself.

Not to confuse happiness with pleasure, the Lifetrack model uses a broader definition of well-being that encompasses happiness.  Dr. Yukio Ishizuka has defined and measured well-being as positive peaks of: peace, friendliness, physical well-being, happiness and a sense of mastery.

Well-being comes from within, it does not come from what we do externally.

One experiences inner happiness and well-being through our three spheres of psychological existence.

When inner transformation occurs, not only do peaks of wellbeing increase, but negative peaks decrease.

A new personality emerges with a more lasting sense of well-ness and health.  Peaks of anxiety, anger, physical symptoms, depression or psychosis may disappear altogether or surface only occasionally.  Behind them lies a far greater sense of well-being, a deeper penetrating sense of peace, friendliness, physical wellbeing, happiness and mastery.

Copyright © 2010 Lifetrack Corporation

Visit the Positive Mental Health Foundation to support a study of human beings at their best, happiest, and most creative form.  Link to us to promote health and happiness.

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The Future of Positive Psychology and Psychiatry

Posted on October 28, 2010 by wpx_beyondou

FAQ

Q :  I have read about Positive Psychology and how it focuses on the positives, is Positive Mental Health the same thing ?

A : Positive Psychology is a movement taking place within psychology and academia, and a welcome one. It is finally swinging the pendulum in the direction of positive human traits and scientifically measuring them. In this respect, it can be most helpful in classifying, understanding and measuring approaches that lead to health.

As I understand it, positive psychology is not a therapy nor a personality model, but analyzes a variety of approaches for positive outcomes such as the human capacity for resistance, or the benefits of gratitude. It is the birth of a new field analyzing tools and methods, which can help measure human strengths.

Positive Psychology can of course study the Lifetrack model of positive mental health which is an integrated personality model based on health (see criteria for positive mental health models by Jahoda).  The model is a step in the direction of a science of health, and defining and quantifying wellbeing.

While the Lifetrack model is not born of the positive psychology movement, it admires its founders Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Dr. Seligman for taking psychology and academia in the right direction. Our hope is that psychiatry will soon follow.

The Lifetrack model of positive mental health is developed by a Japanese psychiatrist Dr. Yukio Ishizuka.  Dr. Ishizuka developed his model on insights from both the East and West and tested it daily by treating a large number of patients over the last 35 years.

The approach uses breakthrough intimacy to help patients in distress overcome and go far beyond a previous best level of adjustment (close relationships, achievement and self).  With the predominance of the pharmaceutical industry, the bias of psychiatry towards the disease model, and the focus on the disbursement of medication, Ishizuka has remained happily isolated from the mainstream.  With only recent awareness of the positive psychology movement, he hopes new doors and directions can be opened.

Towards an understanding of the Mind in Optimal Health and Disease

The Lifetrack model of human personality model can be used to understand both optimal health and disease.  It has been tested on the well, and those in dire distress with ‘psychological illnesses’ such as borderline personality, deep depression and others.  Due to the model’s breadth, it provides fundamental insights on the mind at its best and worst.

Such an understanding of healthy human beings can be taught to psychiatrists and non psychiatrists, it can be applied to the sciences, and used by the general public.

At the same time, because psychiatry is prepared to deal with important symptoms of distress, should the field of psychiatry transform its understanding of health, psychiatrists may be ideally suited to help extremely defensive individuals such as those with borderline personalities (or with other overwhelming defenses) change fundamentally.

The reason psychiatrists may be useful in this role is because they are comfortable with dealing with certain distress signals such as anxiety, anger, physical symptoms, depression or psychosis.  In highly defensive individuals, such symptoms may initially escalate as one attempts to surpass a previous best level of adjustment.  In this sense, a past understanding of distress and disease can be a useful tool.  Should psychiatrists be capable of re-orienting their practice beyond mere symptom relief to the greater goal of building inner health and happiness, this dual expertise will be particularly effective.

Naturally, one does not have to be a psychiatrist to integrate a better understanding of health and happiness or the functioning of the mind.  It is knowledge that should be accessible to all.

Copyright © 2010 Lifetrack Corporation

Visit the Positive Mental Health Foundation to support a study of human beings at their best, happiest, and most creative form.  Link to us to promote health and happiness.

Ready Made Descriptions to Link to This Page:

Positive Psychology, Lifetrack, Happiness and Health
A Japanese Harvard trained psychiatrist explores happiness and health, and discusses the positive psychology approach, constructs of positive psychology.
http://www.PositiveMentalHealthFoundation.com

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