Positive Psychology: Lawyer joke and some scholarly advice to counter the tendency to deceive self and others.

Monday, January 31, 2011

Lawyer joke and some scholarly advice to counter the tendency to deceive self and others.

A single useless man is a shame. Two useless men are a law firm. Three useless men are a congress.
-John Adams

This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
-Polonius (Shakespeare)

Warren Buffet haws a good line about not acting in any manner that you wouldn't want to see written up in the newspaper.

Positive Psychology given credence by Academia:

Positive psychology is the scientific study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive.

Commentators on the subject Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, note that:

"The field of positive psychology at the subjective level is about valued subjective experiences: well-being, contentment, and satisfaction (in the past); hope and optimism (for the future); and flow and happiness (in the present).

At the individual level, it is about positive individual traits: the capacity for love and vocation, courage, interpersonal skill, aesthetic sensibility, perseverance, forgiveness, originality, future mindedness, spirituality, high talent, and wisdom.

At the group level, it is about the civic virtues and the institutions that move individuals toward better citizenship: responsibility, nurturance, altruism, civility, moderation,tolerance, and work ethic."