Positive Psychology: Disorderly Notions

Monday, October 7, 2013

Disorderly Notions

Plate I of Gustave Doré's illustrations to Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote. From Chapter I.

"A world of disorderly notions, picked out of his books, crowded into his imagination," by Gustave Doré, 1863.

This is the first plate from Gustave Doré's wonderful illustrated edition of Don Quixote. Doré brings the imaginative world of literature to life, but also specifically refers to the book. Note in particular the marvelous little jousters at the bottom left, riding mice.

Source/Citation:

via Wikimedia Commons.

"A world of disorderly notions, picked out of his books, crowded into his imagination; and now his head was full of nothing but enchantments, quarrels, battles, challenges, wounds, complaints, amours, torments, and abundance of stuff and impossibilities." (Cervantes, Don Quixote)

Link:

http://www.college.columbia.edu/core/content/world-disorderly-notions-picked-out-his-books-crowded-his-imagination-gustave-dor%C3%A9-1863

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gustave_Dor%C3%A9_-_Miguel_de_Cervantes_-_Don_Quixote_-_Part_1_-_Chapter_1_-_Plate_1_%22A_world_of_disorderly_notions,_picked_out_of_his_books,_crowded_into_his_imagination%22.jpg

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."