The Seligman Times
By Martin Seligman
When I started authentichappiness.org in 2002, I intended it to publicize my book, Authentic Happiness. I also wanted to let you take the tests--at no cost--that are the basis of the book and of Positive Psychology.
I was surprised by how popular this website became: Almost four and a half million people have registered here and taken the tests as of today. About two thousand new people register every day and this usage has been steady for years.
I was just as surprised by how popular Positive Psychology became, both in academia and with the public. There are now courses in most universities around the world and hundreds of millions of dollars in research grants and contracts. There are at least twenty national associations, the foremost being IPPA, ippanetwork.org. Thousands of practitioners and scientists now call themselves “Positive Psychologists.” I number myself among them.
I find myself at the center of all these cross-currents. New articles, new books, new discoveries, new websites, new popular press, and fascinating new people and their projects, come my way almost daily. There are even whole new fields--Positive Education, Positive Neuroscience, Positive Health, Positive Humanities, Positive Theology, Prospective Psychology, and Positive Psychiatry.
So the time has come to expand and liven up this website by writing about the news in Positive Psychology and its allied fields. I call this section The Seligman Times, because I intend—at least at the outset—to write about the stuff that I personally fancy.
This will include PERMA--
Positive Emotion
Engagement
Relationships
Meaning and Purpose and
Achievement
--the substantive areas in Positive Psychology. But it will also include news about
Positive Education
Positive Neuroscience
Prospection
Positive Theology
Positive Health
Positive Politics
Positive Psychiatry
Positive Humanities
Well Being of the World & Big Data.
I will also do book reviews, movie reviews, and editorialize about current events. I will start by reporting new developments and musing about them, but I intend my role ultimately to evolve into “managing editor” and I will soon entertain submissions.
So watch this space.