Word: shahar
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...Seltzer’s colleagues is said to have been catapulted to a Harvard professorship when a mainstream publisher picked up his research on the psychology of happiness—a favorite subject of some of Harvard’s actual psychology lecturers, from Daniel Gilbert to Tal Ben-Shahar. And while the fictional Cass Seltzer did not debate Sir Jonathan Sacks, the Chief Rabbi of Britain, at the London Jewish Book Festival, Goldstein’s husband, Harvard icon Steven Pinker, did in 2005. These adapted details of academia make Goldstein’s story that much more compelling...
...like something entirely new, poised to provide innovative answers to the really big questions. With its fusion of self-help and brain science, it was perfectly calculated to appeal to soul-searching undergrads desirous of something a touch more quantitative than Nietzsche. A lecture course taught by Tal Ben-Shahar on “how to get happy” quickly became the most popular class at Harvard, with students carefully copying down chestnuts like “Give yourself permission to be human” from the blackboard. Over 200 similarly themed courses likewise sprouted up in universities across...
...Shahar, who is the author of Happier (2007) and a new book, The Pursuit of Perfect (April 2009), describes realistic optimists as "optimalists" - not those who believe everything happens for the best, but those who make the best of things that happen...
...life, Ben-Shahar uses three optimalist exercises, which he calls PRP. When he feels down - say, after giving a bad lecture - he grants himself permission (P) to be human. He reminds himself that not every lecture can be a Nobel winner; some will be less effective than others. Next is reconstruction (R). He parses the weak lecture, learning lessons for the future about what works and what doesn't. Finally, there's perspective (P), which involves acknowledging that in the grand scheme of life, one lecture really doesn't matter...
...That's what prompted him to launch the field of positive psychology, with a groundbreaking address to the American Psychological Association in 1998. Instead of focusing only on righting wrongs and lifting misery, he argued, psychologists need to help patients foster good mental health through constructive skills, like Ben-Shahar's PRP. The idea is to teach patients to strengthen their strengths rather than simply improve their weaknesses. "It's not enough to clear away the weeds and underbrush," Seligman says. "If you want roses, you have to plant a rose...