Although each of the three spheres (Self, Intimacy and Achievement) is fundamental to the experience of well-being or happiness, the central and most difficult challenge for adults is the struggle to become and remain close in a close interdepenent relationship.

Our capacity to love grows with us.  As an adult, the most interdependent and meaningful human relationship is the couple.  As this relationship has an intellectual, emotional and physical dimension it has the potential for the greatest level of human intimacy. Conversely when this adult relationship fails, disappoints or is lost altogether, it becomes the most important source of stress, pain or suffering.

Find Love, Marriage Intimacy, a Happy Close Relationship

To love a man or woman in a couple relationship is not easy.  It encompasses the capacity and willingness to give and receive acceptance, dependence, commitment, concern, affection, love, companionship, sensual pleasures and sexual excitement.  After the initial stages of ‘infatuated love’ or ‘passive fusional love,’ relationships require effort.  An individual will encounter defenses or stress symptoms in oneself (anxiety, anger, physical symptoms, depression or sometimes psychosis) and in one’s partner as he or she becomes far closer in the nine elements of intimacy (love definition).

When defenses are too strong, a breakthrough in intimacy may require the help of a third party.  To achieve a closer relationship than ever before, one has to be open to a new experience of intimacy that goes beyond our traditional experience of passive love.

New Love Definition

Intimacy or closeness goes far beyond understanding better marriage communication.  It is not just how you communicate in a close intimate relationship, but what you communicate that is important (see love definition).  To understand our fear of rejection or getting hurt in close intimate relationships is not enough.  We must overcome our defenses (anxiety, anger, physical symptoms, depression or psychosis) provoked by increasing levels of intimacy.  It is only after breaking through in all nine elements of intimacy at a far greater level than our previous best, that inner transformation and a release from stressful symptoms occurs.

The experience of breakthrough intimacy is life changing.  It does far more than save marriages.  Intimacy is central to an individual’s quest for inner well-being (peace, friendliness, physical health, happiness and mastery).   For this reason, in Lifetrack therapy breakthrough intimacy is an integral part of marriage or family therapy, as well as a fundamental experience in all individual therapy with adults.

Intimacy: Largest Impact on Human Psyche

Dr. Ishizuka has found that regardless of the problem (self, intimacy or achievement), working on the intimacy sphere (a close intimate relationship) creates the largest impact on the human psyche.

Even if the problem arises in the self sphere (being in touch, at peace and in control of the self) or the achievement sphere (difficult job, work goals, the desire for work first, the compulsive need for weekend work, loss of a job), intensive work on human intimacy can create a breakthrough in all three spheres of one’s life.

Intimacy Increases Self and Achievement More than Direct Work on Achievement Sphere

In fact, despite the many reasons people come to see a psychiatrist (they are as varied as your imagination will allow you to suppose), Dr. Ishizuka has found that working intensively and almost exclusively on the intimacy sphere produces the most dramatic and long-term change–particularly on a person’s sense of self and achievement.  To examine the four stages of transformation through intimacy and its effect on self and achievement read Stages of Inner Transformation.

There is something about human intimacy at a much higher level that has a profound healing effect.  This baffling phenomena convinced Dr. Ishizuka that a close loving relationship is the critical factor in experiencing individual happiness and optimal adjustment.

Self and Achievement must Catch up to Rising Intimacy

Although intimacy is an important lever for fundamental personality change, alone it is not sufficient to sustain internal adjustment.  A sense of self and achievement must catch up with a high level of intimacy for well-being to be experienced and maintained.

Breakthrough Intimacy Eliminates Symptoms

Breakthrough intimacy (closeness beyond a previous best) eliminates symptoms by making them unnecessary.  This is done by repeatedly focusing on improving closeness until defenses such as anxiety, anger, physical symptoms, depression or psychosis disappear altogether.

To succeed one must help both individuals in the couple, regardless of the person who initially sought help.  Breakthrough intimacy consists of getting the couple several times closer than their previous best (or when they were happiest).

Success entails helping the couple overcome symptoms on both sides, to attain a much higher level of intimacy where defenses such as anxiety, anger, physical symptoms, depression or psychosis become unnecessary.  Symptom elimination of anxiety, anger, physical symptoms, depression or psychosis is a by-product of a successful Lifetrack therapy, but it is neither its goal nor the criteria by which it measures its result.

Copyright © 2010 Lifetrack Corporation

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The intimacy sphere extends one’s thoughts, feelings, and actions beyond the self to become close to another human being.

Different types of intimate relationships such as that with a parent, spouse, significant other, children, friend(s), God or the universe bolsters the psyche.

A Close Interdependent Intimate Relationship

There are many forms of intimacy.  A couple relationship, however, enables human beings to experience fullest union of personality, in all three dimensions of human intimacy – Intellectual/Social, Emotional, and Physical/Sexual.  It is for this reason, that in Lifetrack therapy, Dr. Yukio Ishizuka focuses on marriage intimacy or the development of an equivalent close couple relationship.

Through breakthrough intimacy, he facilitates a transformation of personality to encompass larger, intimacy, achievement and self spheres.  This initial breakthrough in the intimacy sphere influences profoundly the Achievement and Self sphere.

Each of the three spheres influences the others.  No sphere exists in isolation.

Love Definition, Closeness Definition, Intimacy Definition

Love is an over-used word.  In the context of an adult couple relationship love means different things to different people.  In the Lifetrack model we use the word intimacy or closeness.  We refer to such intimacy in the couple relationship because such intimacy has the potential for the greatest level of emotional, physical and intellectual-social in human relationships.

Intellectual-Social: How close you are in the intellectual-social dimension

Accept:  Your willingness and ability to accept your partner
Depend: Your willingness and ability to trust and depend upon your partner
Let Depend:  Your willingness and ability to let your partner depend on you

Emotional:  How close you are in the emotional dimension

Concern: Your thoughtfulness and concern over your partner’s wellbeing
Affection:  Your willingness and ability to feel and express affection
Love:  Your willingness and ability to feel and express love

Physical-Sexual:  How close you are in the physical-sexual dimension

Togetherness: The extent to which you want to be (and enjoy being) together
Sensualness:  The extent to which you desire and enjoy touching, holding, kissing and caressing
Sexual Excitement: The extent to which you desire and enjoy giving and receiving sexual excitement

Closeness

Closeness is defined as all 3 dimensions of intimacy (intellectual-social, emotional, physical-sexual) or in all 9 elements: accept, depend, let depend, concern, affection, love, togetherness, sensualness and sexual-excitement.

Couples are asked to increase these nine elements of intimacy far beyond a previous best level of adjustment.  Those who arrive single in Lifetrack therapy are encouraged to find someone and are helped to become closer to that individual.

Copyright © 2010 Lifetrack Corporation

Visit http://www.PositiveMentalHealthFoundation.com to understand individuals at their best, happiest, and most creative form.  Link to us to promote health and happiness.

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Life Purpose

For those seeking inner well-being (peace, friendliness, physical health, happiness or a sense of mastery) as their life purpose, there seems to be several paths.  Some attempt to find such inner well-being through the Self, others through Intimacyor Achievement.  Still others through Spirituality.  To build and balance inner well-being one may need to be present in all spheres of life.

Self Sphere

Buddha believed that the mind suffers when we dwell upon past misfortunes or future desires.  According to Buddha, the end of suffering lies in complete awareness of the present, bringing the mind to a state of emptiness.   In this sense, Buddha believed the mind has subjective power over external events.  Although we cannot control what happens to us in life, we can control the way in which we respond to it.  We can accept the present moment for what is and in that manner stop suffering from it.  To attempt that, Buddha found that meditation and breathing helped to achieve a state of emptiness or being.  Meditation in this form can be a vehicle for one’s true self (one’s consciousness) to merge with the universe.

Today, many people attempt this, sometimes with the help of Zen or other spiritual teachings.  Through it, one may feel “at peace,” and “in touch” or “in control” apart from what happens in our intimate relationships and achievements.  In this sense, enlightenment through the Self if achieved can be life transforming.  It may be an ideal path for some.  Refreshed and invigorated the Self can then better reach out to others in closeness and in meaningful achievement.

Achievement Sphere

Some of us feel a sense of peace or being when we achieve.  For most, this means when we are at work.  Although not all aspects of work are enjoyable, there are peak moments when we are one with our work.  We lose a sense of time.  During these moments, we experience peace, friendliness, physical well-being, happiness or mastery.

These peak states are not easy to attain, but as most of us expend much time and effort at work (achievement sphere) most have experienced positive peaks of wellbeing during work — or alternatively when we achieve in a passion, hobby or favorite sport (also a form of achievement).

Peak states often do not last long, but when experienced give a sense of quietness.  Those who experience longer lasting states, often experience them when  they move towards a life goal with a sense of lightness that enables them to enjoy the present moment.

Intimacy Sphere

Most of us want to find love above all else.  As adults, we seek such love in a couple relationship, the most intimate union of two human beings emotionally, intellectually and physically sexually.  Because couple intimacy can provide the strongest sense of oneness with another and with the world, we crave it.  When disappointed, hurt or frustrated, the same couple relationship that provided well-being can provoke peaks of anxiety, anger, physical symptoms, depression or psychosis.

Couple intimacy can provide a sense of peace, friendliness, physical well-being, happiness and mastery.  Yet, like achievement, continued wellbeing in intimacy involves our full attention.  To shortcut effort, some seek a sense of one-ness in sex, where he or she may temporally lose a sense of self and become one with the other and the world.  Yet often such intimacy is fleeting.  Unless intimacy is given the attention and work that we often readily give to achievement or to our sense of self, the sense of connection is lost.

Pleasure and Wellbeing are Different

Well-being or states that can encompass moments of peace, friendliness, physical well-being, happiness and mastery are experienced when we are fully present in any one sphere (self, intimacy, achievement).  Yet, states of wellbeing are not to be sought directly or mistaken as mere pleasure (sex, alcohol, etc).  Of course, sex can be pleasurable but sex without intimacy does not sustain a greater sense of well-being.  Alcohol or drugs may make one feel good by temporarily escaping reality, but there is no mastery.  The self may mistakenly feel ‘at peace,’ but is neither ‘in control,’ nor ‘in touch.’ While well-being brings a background or constance to one’s inner state, pleasure is always fleeting.

Well-being (peace, friendliness, physical health, happiness and mastery) can be experienced as we build and balance our sense of self, intimate relationships and achievement at much higher levels than before.  At higher states of wellbeing one still experiences suffering, yet suffering occurs in the background of a larger sense of inner happiness, peace, friendliness, physical wellbeing and mastery.

Resistance in the form of Stress

Regardless of the sphere one approaches or builds inner well-being, one finds resistance.  As one experiences a challenge or pushes beyond a previous best level of adjustment, one will need to overcomestress or fear (anxiety, anger, physical-symptoms, depression or even for some psychosis).  These defenses can be triggered from a difficult past or may be dormant in people who have had positive experiences.

Fear exists in all of us to differing degrees.  Stress surfaces when we push beyond a previous best level of self, intimacy or achievement or when we are overwhelmed with a current challenge.

As we grow, we cannot avoid stress.  Stress is a normal sign that the mind is momentarily overwhelmed.  Either a positive or negative experience can trigger it.  When stressed, we may experience a hierarchy of defense including anxiety, anger, physical symptoms, depression or psychosis.  These are not pleasant states and there are a variety of stress techniques we can use in our daily life to grow from crisis.  Some who hate life itself experience 5 alternatives at his or her threshold of individual stress tolerance.

Building health and happiness is difficult.  When we cannot overcome a challenge, it may be necessary to withdraw from the challenge temporarily.  This allows us to achieve a better perspective.  Once rested, we can return to our life challenge to surpass a previous level of intimacy, self or achievement.   When we feel we can not breakthrough nor withdraw, it is important to reach out to others and when necessary seek professional help.

Spirituality

The Lifetrack model of positive mental health follows the criteria established by Jahodafor robust models of health which can explain the mind at its best and worst.  Such models are demanding in nature, but when adequate can provide insight to individuals in dire distress or at their optimal best.  Perhaps such models should also explain the need for human spirituality.

The Lifetrack model does not espouse any one religion or model of spirituality.  Yet it allows room for them to exist.  To understand the role of spirituality in such a model, one examines how the three spheres inter-act and over-lap to form our personalities.

Each sphere affects all the others.  Outer experience touches the inner and vice-versa.  We do not exist in isolation.  Our self, intimacy and achievement spheres inter-act and influence each other and our experience of the world.  When you have a bad day at work, that influences your relationship.  When your relationship is shaky, that influences your state of mind at work.  When your Self sphere experiences stress (out of touch, not at peace nor in control), your love and work suffers.  Through our senses the outside world influences our inner experience.

Notice, that at the center of the overlap amongst the three spheres is a space.  That center or space can represent inner consciousness.  It embodies our essence that experiences our self, intimacy and achievement spheres.

In other words, some may become aware of this space as they become selfless (the true self becoming one with the universe as in Buddhism), or find and achieve a life task that has an impact on a neighbor or on humanity (meaningful achievement), or experience the love of a spouse, of children, of other human beings, God, nature and the universe (intimacy).  As inner consciousness grows, one might imagine that this inner vortex grows.

Spirituality : An Extension of the Intimacy Sphere

In terms of the Lifetrack model of positive mental health, spirituality is seen as an extension of the intimacy sphere. This is because transcendental love and the love for another human being are not seen as two different quests, but a related one.  That is when we love another human being unconditionally or experience the love of God; each fortifies the experience of the other.  It is as if the door to one, can open the other.

Dr. Ishizuka is himself open to Buddhism, Zen and Christianity. He is agnostic, open to the reality of such existence, without wishing to name one or espouse one over the other.  His work as a therapist remains rooted on the individual and human intimacy.

Because the Lifetrack positive mental health model evolved in the course of working with patients through Dr. Yukio Ishizuka’s work as a psychiatrist, therapy focuses on human relationships, and notably, the most meaningful, inter-dependent and difficult human relationship: the couple.  Although this relationship has the potential for us to experience the greatest joy or ecstasy, it also has the capacity for us to experience the greatest pain.

Dr. Ishizuka teaches a couple to disarm the mutual defenses against closeness (anxiety, anger, physical-symptoms, depression, and psychosis) to breakthrough to a much higher level of intimacy than a couple has ever experienced previously.   A breakthrough in intimacy pervades all areas of one’s life ; including the self and achievement spheres.

Through breakthrough intimacy, Ishizuka helps an individual become and remain closer to an important other person (spouse or equivalent) long after therapy has terminated. This source of unconditional love and happiness in one’s couple relationship (at far higher levels than the individual previously experienced at his or her best), transforms the individual, the couple, and often how they experience their achievement and self spheres.

Interestingly, when one can love another human being such as a spouse or equivalent (love definition), it may also open a door for spirituality.  In the same manner, spiritual intimacy (becoming one with Christ or in Buddhism one with the Universe) also opens the door for greater compassion and love to all human beings.

Cycle of Life and the Growth of Spheres that build Health

Over one’s life one will re-define one’s self, intimacy and achievement spheres.  Through this growth, the circles expand and grow larger.  As an adult, one’s spheres encompass a closer relationship with an important other person such as a spouse or equivalent, with others around us and with the world.

As the spheres expand, the definition of self, intimacy and achievement expands to encompass more of the world.  Many engage in helping a larger cause than oneself, or one’s immediate family.  In this manner, we engage with others and with the world defining our three spheres in a broader sense.

Happiness and Health: Inner Transformation First

The person who wants to change the world (large achievement sphere) but who has not changed himself first, may become overwhelmed.  He or she may outwardly have a large achievement, self or intimacy sphere (and be admired by many), but may not be reaping the full experience of inner peace, friendliness, physical-wellbeing, happiness and mastery which usually accompanies such growth in spheres.

Through effort and self-denial, one can accomplish much (and often be regarded as a genius).  However noble and life changing one’s accomplishments, when one’s achievement remains external, one foregos the present.  Accomplishment gives a sense of joy, friendliness or love — but not for long.  Once one goal is achieved, another larger goal is presented.

Through Breakthrough Intimacy, by becoming far closer to another human being (usually spouse or equivalent), we may experience longer lasting peace, friendliness, physical health, happiness and mastery.  Through a deeper experience of closeness with the most important person in one’s life, we make a fundamental breakthrough in all areas of life and experience longer lasting well-being (peace, friendliness, physical health, happiness and mastery).

In the Lifetrack experience, breakthrough intimacy provides a deep transformation in all spheres of life–including achievement.  It is as if at such higher levels of intimacy, one initiates a transformation process in human personality that is far more profound than any direct work on achievement or superficial work on the Self.

Once breakthrough intimacy is achieved and sustained for a period, the self and achievement spheres rise to meet and balance it at much higher levels of well-being or adjustment.  The breakthrough, initiated in the intimacy sphere, extends to all spheres of life.

The goal of life is to build one’s spheres: to develop a larger sense of self, intimacy and achievement, but with a sense of lightness.

There is no limit to inner growth.  The self at its peak become selfless (the true self becoming one with the universe as in Buddhism).  Achievement (the desire to do something meaningful, well or difficult) impacts not only our neighbor, but potentially humanity. Intimacy, our love for a spouse or equivalent, may encompass children, neighbors, all other human beings, God, nature or the universe.

Inner transformation is possible through any one sphere.  In the context of Lifetrack, the breakthrough point is through the intimacy sphere (couple relationship).  Through this most important and difficult relationship the couple is taught to disarm their defenses (anxiety, anger, physical symptoms, depression and psychosis) that are triggered by rising intimacy.

Other approaches to internal change may attempt to go through the Self (spiritual teachings) or through achievement (aligning one’s inner purpose and outer achievement).

If we grow in all spheres and can do so with playfulness and humor from within (we do not take ourselves too seriously), we may experience true self, intimacy and achievement, and also enjoy each moment.  We can change the world by experiencing change within ourselves.  From this position of inner peace, friendliness, physical wellbeing, happiness and mastery, effective action is strengthened.

As we grow our presence in our self, intimacy and achievement spheres, we can grow to encompass a larger, healthier world.  We incorporate the world in ourselves and experience ourselves in the world.

Copyright © 2010 Lifetrack Corporation

Read our section Happiness and Health, a Science of Health (life way), Criteria for Health Models (science of happiness), Happiness Defined? Quantified?  (cycle of life),  Happier? (fear of the unknown),  Why Positive Mental Health Works (objective subjective), and Applications (international behavior).

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The species “man,” can be defined not only in anatomical and physiological terms; its members share basic psychic qualities, the laws which govern their mental and emotional functioning, and the aims for a satisfactory solution of the problem of human existence.

It is true that our knowledge of man is still so incomplete that we cannot yet give a satisfactory definition of man in a psychological sense.  It is the task of the “science of man” to arrive eventually at a correct description of what deserves to be called human nature. — Erich Fromm (the Sane Society)

Thinking the Unthinkable : A refreshing life way

Can there really be a “science of man”?  How are we to know if psychic qualities really exist?  And, if they do, how might one come to know their nature – let alone how such psychic qualities are related and interact?

The Answer Not Freud (Freud psychoanalysis), but Einstein

Interestingly, the answer to this question may not come from Freud, but Einstein.  He wrote, “In our endeavor to understand reality we are somewhat like a man trying to understand the mechanism of a closed watch.  He sees the face and the moving hands, even hears it’s ticking, but he has no way of opening the case.  If he is ingenious, he may form some picture of a mechanism for all the things he observes, but he may never be quite sure his picture is the only one, which could explain his observations.  He will never be able to compare his picture with the mechanism and he cannot even imagine the possibility and meaning of such comparison.”

How We Make Sense of Reality

Einstein, by sharing this story of the watch, was describing the way the natural science of physics makes sense of reality.

He was well aware that despite that physicists may never discover exactly what was underneath the watch, there were still means to come closer to understanding it.

His predecessor, Newton, had done precisely that.  After stating a few postulates that most of the scientists in his time accepted, Newton attempted to show how the postulates could explain many of the things they observed.  To do so, however, he first had to define what it was he wanted to selectively observe or explain, and find a means or method to measure it (the latter was done by creating calculus).

A Science of Man

In much the same way as physicists must grapple with understanding what is under the watch without being able to see it, the challenge with developing a natural “science of man” could be the same.  The first step then is to do what physics and all natural sciences must courageously attempt: describe general phenomena, concepts or abstractions, which explain a wide variety of experiences.  In the case of a science of man those general concepts concern human psychological experience. This endeavor is likely to be a more difficult task than physics!

What are the Spheres of Psychological Existence?

While all attempts to understand the mind are imperfect, if one begins in the tradition of the natural sciences one must start by describing psychological phenomena that are abstract (and encompassing enough) that they hold true for most psychological experience.  These postulates need to encompass psychic qualities that when present determine the experience of well-being and health or when absent distress and illness.  If indeed there were such core psychic qualities, the laws of “which govern our mental and emotional functioning,” then it would follow that when we move in accordance with those laws well-being is the result.

Can the Same Spheres define health and illness?

Forces, including self-defeating thoughts, feelings and actions, can help us understand the causes of non-organic disease.  Naturally, assuming the very existence of psychological laws or of a better understanding of the structure of the human mind is to think the unthinkable.  Yet, no science is exempt from thinking the unthinkable – of asking of itself the very simple questions that only children dare ask.  These are the most dangerous questions, the ones that can shake the very foundations of any science.

Do the same assumptions hold for the body and mind?

Today, psychiatrists and psychologists need to be asking those questions.  As of yet, the medical field has focused its attention on developing a fairly consistent and increasingly accurate means to classify and measure illnesses, disease and disorders.  In this science of disease, mental illness is analogous to physical illness.  Whether one has cancer or depression, successful treatment demands the elimination of the disease, its reduction or containment.  To be healthy is not to be sick.

The Limits of a Medical Model based on the Body

This “medical model” has been helpful, yet it has a built-in limitation: it cannot explain the mind at its most healthy, creative and fullest potential.  In that sense it can not qualify as a natural science of man.  Too eager to establish a study of the mind as a science, psychiatrists never wondered whether the same assumptions hold for the body and mind.  To use Einstein’s analogy, while surgery, allowed the doctor to open up “the watch” and see whether they were right or wrong about what makes it tick, a science of the mind could not.  Psychiatrists had no idea if whether they were on the right track.  Although psychiatry has come a long way and helped many people, perhaps it should have evolved even further.

DSM useful, but too narrow to understand the Mind

Although pharmacological research has given the medical field increasingly effective and safer medications such as Prozac, the disease model has failed to prove that specific chemical changes in the brain is the cause or the cure for all mental illnesses.  What the field has now is a classification for disease that is helpful for the disbursement of medication, the labeling of “illnesses’” and insurance purposes.

The Death of the Disease Model?

Today this science based on disease is dying — not because it is wrong — but because it presents too narrow a worldview.  It does not attempt to do what all the natural sciences must: describe general phenomena, concepts or abstractions, which explain a wide variety of (human psychological) experiences.  To do so one must return to the challenge offered by Jahoda to develop a model of Positive Mental Health.

The Lifetrack model of positive mental health described on this website is one such attempt (insights Lifetrack), but is certainly not the only model possible.  In this respect, all models are imperfect and wait further testing (objective subjective) by patients to be refined and improved.

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.

Copyright © 2010 Lifetrack Corporation

Read our section Happiness and Health, Criteria for Health Models (science of happiness), Happiness Defined? Quantified?  (cycle of life),  Happier? (fear of the unknown),  Why Positive Mental Health Works (objective subjective), Insights (life purpose), and Applications (international behavior).

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Dr. Yukio Ishizuka was born in 1938 in Hakodate, Japan.  He experienced WWII as a child and grew up during the American occupation.  It was a time of cross-fertilization of ideas of East and West.

In 1961, he entered Keio Medical School in Tokyo, where he taught himself English and founded the Japan International Medical Student Association (JIMSA) with the support of Dr. Taro Takemi—the long-standing President of the Japanese Medical Association and a well-respected physician and nuclear physicist.  Upon his graduation from Keio, Ishizuka informed Dr. Takemi of his plans to pursue post-graduate training in the United States.  “You should not return to Japan,” advised Dr. Takemi.  Yukio Ishizuka understood that he was being set free.

In 1965, the young graduate left Japan to complete a rotating internship at Jefferson Medical College Hospital in Philadelphia.  The following year, he was one of 25 physicians accepted for residency in psychiatry at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center of Harvard Medical School.  Elated, Dr. Ishizuka took a trip to Europe on a two-week discount ticket, spending much of his savings in the process.  During this trip he fell in love with a French woman, Colette, who would follow him to the US several months later, marry him, and inspire much of his work.

Towards the end of his residency in Boston, Harvard Professors Elvin Semrad and David Riesman encouraged Dr. Ishizuka to undergo further training in psycho-analysis.  Dr. Ishizuka briefly considered going to Mexico City to study under Erich Fromm.  Unconvinced, however, that psychoanalysis could enable people to become healthier and happier, he left psychiatry and was hired by McKinsey, and international business consulting firm.  After several years of consulting for McKinsey in Paris, Amsterdam, Toronto, and New York, he did mergers and acquisitions.  It was during his fourth year of mergers that one of his work colleagues became depressed.  Dr. Ishizuka’s rewarding experience helping his friend led him to return to the field of psychiatry in 1976.

Having been taught to approach complex problems as a whole by defining and measuring ‘objectives’ critical for organizational survival and success, he returned to his own field eager to understand the existing criteria for positive mental health.  Instead, he found a growing list of mental diseases and disorders (Diagnostic Statistic Manual of Psychiatry).  Whether one suffered from anxiety or depression, successful psychiatric treatment demanded the elimination, reduction, or containment of disease.  To be healthy is not to be sick.  There was little if anything on positive mental health, well-being, and happiness.

At that time, Dr. Ishizuka remembered the work of the American psychologist Maria Jahoda, who in 1958 published “Current Concepts of Positive Mental Health.”  The monograph introduced guidelines for the evaluation of models of positive psychology.  Unfortunately, in 1976 little work had followed.  No model of positive psychological health was developed or tested with patients.  It was his mentor, Dr. Jack R. Ewalt, the man who was in charge of the study by Jahoda, who pushed him and others not to give up on health.  As Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Ewalt continued to challenge his students to question prevailing medical doctrine and conceptions on health by learning directly from patients, rather than using their own words to define and treat illness.

Dr. Ishizuka, drawing both on the East and the West, his experience in psychiatry, and most importantly, his patients, developed a science of health.  That paradigm incorporates both an understanding of the mind in distress and optimal well-being.  Over the years, he used and tested the model with different nationalities and people from all walks of life.  Rather than examining stress, disease, and illnesses, Ishizuka asks different questions of his field: What is the objective of therapy?  What does it mean to be well? How do we measure wellbeing as a part of a cycle of life?

The model of human personality and experience that he developed incorporates man’s search for self, the need for intimacy and the quest for achievement.  It also incorporates peak positive and negative experiences and an understanding of physical health.  The tripod model has withstood the demanding criteria put forth by the American psychologist Maria Jahoda in 1958 on “Current Concepts of Positive Mental Health” for the creation of new models of health defined in positive terms.  Dr. Ishizuka’s work helps us to build health far beyond a previous best level of health, happiness and optimal adjustment.  Working to overcome a fear of the unknown, he has defined and quantified the subjective nature of wellbeing and one working model of positive mental health and human personality (objective subjective).

Dr. Ishizuka’s has been using, refining, and testing the model of positive mental health with over 2000 patients in the last 35 years of his daily practice.  With a good sense of humor, a great sense of balance, and over 40,000 session hours examining millions of graphs on health and happiness, he has fine tuned a science of health and well-being.  His approach on healthy human beings has been presented to numerous fields including economic man, war/crisis/health, national health, Japan and organizations.

Today through his busy private practice, he continues the work that Dr. Ewalt incited him and other residents to undertake.  He hopes that insights that arose during Lifetrack therapy can contribute to each person’s life purpose ; the experience of much higher levels of self, intimacy and meaningful achievement.   Through this website and future books he hopes to share with other psychiatrists, psychologists, practitioners, academics, and most importantly the general public.

Dr. Yukio Ishizuka graduated from Keio University Medical School, Tokyo, Japan in 1964.  He completed his residency in Psychiatry at Mass Mental Health Center, Harvard Medical School in 1969.  He is the founder of Japan International Medical Students Association (JIMSA), which received the coveted Japanese Health Culture Award in 2007 by the Minister of Japanese Health at the Japanese Imperial Palace. Happily Married for 44 years with three children, he is also a member of the Salmagundi Club of N.Y. as a resident artist.

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:

Happiness and Health
Dr. Yukio Ishizuka, A Japanese Harvard trained psychiatrist presents a new model of Health and Happiness. Explore a science of happiness, the cycle of life, life purpose, objective subjective, stress types, and a life way that integrates both East and West.
http://positivementalhealthfoundation.com/about/yukio-ishizuka/

Happiness and Health, Excellence and Well-being
Dr. Yukio Ishizuka, a Japanese Harvard trained psychiatrist who left psychiatry to work at McKinsey (management consulting) and later mergers and acquisitions, returns to his field with a new question: what does it mean to be well?   Explore individual and organizational excellence and wellbeing.
http://positivementalhealthfoundation.com/about/yukio-ishizuka/

Happiness and Health
Dr. Yukio Ishizuka, A Japanese Harvard trained psychiatrist presents a science of happiness, a new life way or life purpose.
http://positivementalhealthfoundation.com/about/yukio-ishizuka/

A Science of Happiness and Health?

Wellness is not the absence of disease. It is the presence of something — the question is of what?

Certain basic psychological needs, when fulfilled, lead to greater happiness and success.  These basic psychological needs are just as important as the body’s need for food, water, and sex.  Failure to meet and balance them can lead one to experience a variety of stress symptoms, burnout or divorce.  After prolonged neglect of basic psychological needs, one may become physically sick, or experience signs of stress.  At that juncture, it is important to take action.

Health in Positive Terms

Even though our happiness depends on fulfilling basic psychological needs, we know very little about them.

Regrettably, many in the field of psychology and psychiatry still concentrate largely upon the diagnosis and cure of disease: stress symptoms or stress types (anxiety, anger, physical symptoms, depression and psychosis).

We have forgotten that the goal of psychology is to help individuals live healthier, happier lives, as well as identify genius and optimal adjustment in any one sphere of our lives.  The medical field has spent years defining sickness.  It has yet to define what it means to be well.

Defining Psychological Health

Dr. Yukio Ishizuka, a Harvard trained Japanese psychiatrist, however, took a different path.

Instead of focusing on disease and illness, he observed that despite the unique symptoms and backgrounds of his patients, the elements that determined their well-being or distress were strikingly predictable.

This lead to a hypothesis that there may be certain psychological spheres which when fulfilled built successful psychological health, and when unfulfilled or repeatedly neglected, caused stress symptoms and made one vulnerable to disease.

Basic Psychological Needs 

By 1975, Dr. Yukio Ishizuka hypothesized that these three basic psychological needs or spheres that determined psychological health were:  the search for self, the need for intimacy, and the quest for achievement.

The Three Spheres

These three spheres –Self, Intimacy, and Achievement — as defined by the Lifetrack model of Positive Mental Health remain broad enough to encompass nearly all psychological events.

None of the three spheres exist in isolation.  Together they dynamically interact to characterize a person’s personality.

Hence, Dr. Ishizuka’s definition of psychological health is also a personality definition of man’s aspirations in a psychological sense.

Self

Traditionally, the integrity of the Self refers to the entire personality of the individual.  The Lifetrack model defines Self more narrowly as the ability and willingness to be “in touch,” “at peace, ” and “in control, ” of one’s own thoughts, feelings and actions.  Such self-awareness distinguishes human beings from their achievements and from their close relationships.  To be “in touch,” “at peace,” and “in control” of self requires the capacity to recognize and accept both positives and negatives in life, integrating them into a balanced perspective.  It also includes the flexibility to initiate, modify, and control thoughts, feelings, and actions.  We can do this by observing our Self and remaining present in the given moment.

Intimacy

Intimacy requires us to extend our thoughts, feelings, and actions beyond the self and become close to another human being. Many different types of intimate relationships such as those with a parent, spouse, significant other, children, friends, God or the universe bolster the psyche. A couple relationship, however, enables human beings to experience fullest union of personality, in all three dimensions of human intimacy – Intellectual/Social, Emotional, and Physical/Sexual.  It is for this reason, that in Lifetrack therapy, the therapist will focus on marriage intimacy or the development of an equivalent close couple relationship.

Achievement

Achievement is the capacity to reach beyond the self through the productive, creative, and the constructive expression of one’s capacities. It is an indirect way of finding an intimate union or relationship with the world in which one lives. Behind one’s work, career, athletics, hobbies or other intellectual and productive activities is the desire not only to subsist, but also to find meaning and achieve value, acceptance, respect, admiration and deep down love by doing something difficult or meaningful.  A person who is either unable or unwilling to build a relationship with the world through his or her constructive capacities may turn in desperation to destruction – an attempt to be noticed and counted and freed from total insignificance by a forced relationship of dominance.

Positive Mental Health: Balance the Cycle of Life

Regardless of one’s willingness or natural ability, experiencing wellbeing in any one sphere of life requires presence, dedication and perseverance.

There are trade-offs.  There are moments when one sphere becomes dominant.

However, when a person continuously chooses one sphere over the others, efforts become counter-productive.  At the end of one’s life one may regret having leaned too much towards the self, having thrown oneself into a love relationship at any cost, or having been consumed by achievement.

Life Definition : Genius in All Spheres of Life

When balance is forgotten, a love of life is sacrificed.  If one only experiences peace, friendliness, physical well-being, happiness and mastery in one sphere of life, then all time spent in the others spheres feels ‘wasted.’   We are not present and this is a source of great pain and frustration.  To be a genius in inner well-being is to be a genius in all three spheres, to be fully present in our self, intimacy and achievement spheres.

Beyond Work, Love and Play?

Although these three spheres have long been the subject of poets, philosophers, intellectuals, and theologians, Dr. Ishizuka goes beyond saying that health is work, love and play.  He does so by defining a whole model of human personality based on these three psychological aspirations, a method to surpass our own previous best level of adjustment in each of the three spheres, and a means to put our setbacks and fear into perspective by observing the true nature of things (objective subjective), quantifying happiness and tracking our progress.  He does all of that with a great sense of balance, skill and humor.  Rather than pointing to one life way or cycle of life, he has defined spheres of psychological health that define inner health at any given moment.

Life Purpose: A Model of Health Combining East-West

“Everywhere I go, ” wrote Freud, “I find a poet has been there before me.”

We all can and should come up with insights on our own happiness and health.  The advantage of a model based on basic psychological needs that encompass insights from the East and West is that it helps us to better recognize, develop, and fulfill the limits and capabilities of the human psyche.

By defining psychological health in positive terms and developing a means to quantify and track it, Dr. Yukio Ishizuka is contributing to a Science of Health.  In the last 35 years of his work on a model of positive mental health, over two thousand individuals have used his Lifetrack method to go beyond crisis and surpass a previous best level of psychological health.

Building Inner Health: A Life Way?

The experience of over 2000 individuals tracking daily their health in the three spheres of self (self definition), intimacy (love definition) and achievement (work definition) as well as their daily perception of their physical condition, positive peaks of well-being (peace, friendliness, physical well-being, happiness, and mastery) and negative peaks of stress (anxiety, anger, physical symptoms, depression and psychosis) has provided great insight into our desire for happiness and health, and to resistance against it.

Life Questions :  Find Love?  Work first?  Self esteem help?

Most of us do not build inner health.  We just deal with stress and problems as they arise.

The Lifetrack personality model attempts to understand how the three spheres of self, intimacy and achievement grow, interact and influence each other in our experience of health or distress.

The question then becomes what is the best way to achieve a greater sense of well-being (peace, friendliness, physical well-being, happiness, mastery)?

Should one first seek peace in self, the realization of achievement or fulfillment in intimacy?

The answer may depend on where we are in life and who can help us should we be overwhelmed.

Overcome Fear of the Unknown

Experience Positive Mental Health

To experience well-being (peace, friendliness, physical well-being, happiness and mastery) one may attempt to do so through any sphere.

Regardless of the sphere one approaches inner well-being, one has to struggle to overcome stress or fear in the form of anxiety, anger, physical-symptoms, depression or even psychosis.

Fear can be triggered from a difficult past or even be dormant in people who have had positive experiences.  They exist in all of us to differing degrees and can surface when we push beyond a previous best level of self, intimacy or achievement.

Reach Out, Overcome Fear, Recognize Stress Types, UseStress Techniques, Beyond ‘ I hate life ‘ to new Life Purpose

If you are overwhelmed, you may wish to reach out to loved ones or seek professional help.  There is nothing wrong with that.  Often it is the strongest who push themselves beyond areas where most would have given up.  Anyone can reach their threshold of stress if they push themselves too hard, and too long.  Each of us can experience the joy of building in the present, of living fully one’s sense of self, close relationships and meaningful achievement.

Opt in for more on A Science of Happiness and Health by the Positive Mental Health Foundation

Use the resources on our site to build, fortify, and develop each sphere of life (Self, Intimacy and Achievement) far beyond a previous best or optimal level.

Sign up for our monthly newsletter for more on happiness and health, conferences, events, new books and timely topics.   Join our blog to be updated on articles on happiness and health.

Personality Test : Tracking Happiness and Health using the Lifetrack Model of Positive Mental Health

For those wishing to track one’s own health and gain insights on one’s Personality or pattern of coping based on love, work and play, download (3MG) Lifetrack Therapy published in the Psychiatry Journal University of Ottawa, Vol 13, No. 4, 1988.  The article contains a summary of the positive mental health approach and a full definition sheet and room to track your inner health.  Criteria for a Science of Happiness and Positive Mental Health Models are provided by the reknown psychologist Jahoda.

You can use such definitions to rate your experience daily.

The Lifetrack model of Positive Mental Health and Lifetrack sheet can be used to take a global look at your inner health or to surpass a previous best level of self, intimacy and achievement.  Be aware as you rate yourself, you may experience resistance in the form of stress.  This is good stress.

The Study of Health and Happiness by the Positive Mental Health Foundation Site and Applications to Sciences

Whether you want to build psychological health in your own life, or understand how assumptions about healthy human beings can change other fields such as economics, join us.

We encourage individuals from all walks of life, including editors, journalists, writers, artists, scientists, housewives, academics, economists, psychologists and the general public to contribute to a deeper understanding of topics such as psychological health, happiness, and optimal adjustment.  Together we hope to better understand healthy human beings and build a new paradigm of personality based on health.

Copyright © 2010 Lifetrack Corporation

Ready Made Links to the Positive Mental Health Foundation:

Happiness and Health, Cycle of Life, Life Way, Life Questions
A Japanese Harvard trained psychiatrist explores happiness and health, cycle of life, life purpose, life questions, stress types, and a life way that integrates both East and West.
http://www.PositiveMentalHealthFoundation.com

Happiness and Health : Life Way? Positive Mental Health Foundation
Happiness and Health a life way?  Life questions, cycle of life, psychological health by the Positive Mental Health Foundation
http://www.PositiveMentalHealthFoundation.com

Personality Test Self Rating, Personality Definition, Life Definition
Personality test : life definition as self, intimacy & achievement, happiness and health, self definition, work definition, love definition, by Positive Mental Health Foundation
http://www.PositiveMentalHealthFoundation.com

Life Questions : Work first ?  Find Love ?  Self Esteem Help ?
Life questions : a life way ?  Happiness and health through work first ?  Self esteem help ? Ability to find love ?, Life through work definition, love definition, self definition
http://www.PositiveMentalHealthFoundation.com

Spheres of Psychological Health?

Wellness is not the absence of disease. It is the presence of something  — the question is of what?

After returning to medicine, Dr. Yukio Ishizuka asked himself what does it mean to be well?  What is the objective of therapy?

As he actively interacted with his patients, he observed over and over again that despite their infinitely varied and unique symptoms and personal backgrounds, the elements that determined their well-being or distress were strikingly predictable. This lead to the hypothesis that there may be certain psychological spheres which when fulfilled built successful psychological adjustment, and when unfulfilled or repeatedly neglected, caused distress and made one vulnerable to distress.

Basic Psychological Needs : The Three Spheres
By 1975, he realized that the three spheres critical to building health in our daily lives were quite simple. These three spheres –self, intimacy, and achievement — remain broad enough to encompass nearly all psychological events. None of the spheres exist in isolation. They are overlapping and inter-related. These three spheres together dynamically interact and constitute a person’s personality.

Self
To be “in touch,” “at peace,” and “in control” of self requires the capacity to recognize and accept both positives and negatives in life, integrating them into a balanced perspective. It also includes the flexibility to initiate, modify, and control thoughts, feelings, and actions.

Intimacy
To extend one’s thoughts, feelings, and actions beyond the self and become close to another human being. Many different types of intimate relationships such as those with a parent, spouse, significant other, children, friends, or God can bolster the psyche. The couple relationship, however, enables human beings to experience fullest union of personality, in all three dimensions of human intimacy – Intellectual/Social, Emotional, and Physical/Sexual.

Achievement
To reach beyond the self through the productive, creative, and the constructive expression of one’s capacities. It is an indirect way of finding an intimate union or relationship with the world in which one lives. Behind one’s work, career, athletics, hobbies or other intellectual and productive activities is the desire not only to subsist, but also to find meaning and achieve value, acceptance, respect, admiration and deep down love. A person who is either unable or unwilling to build a relationship with the world through his or her constructive capacities may turn in desperation to destruction – an attempt to be noticed and counted and freed from total insignificance by a forced relationship of dominance.

To learn more about the three spheres and other basic concepts of Lifetrack positive mental health please sign in our Opt-In Box and blog.  If you would like to write an article on LifeTrack please download a Press Packet or use the contact us form to contact Dr. Ishizuka for an interview & opportunities to speak at your organization.

Copyright © 2010 Lifetrack Corporation

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