Mihály Csíkszentmihályi: "The Construction of Happiness"

Mihály Csíkszentmihályi (Quality of Life Research Center an der Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA, USA): "At least since Aristotle, it has been repeated that the main goal of humans is happiness, and that all other goals are just means to achieve this state. But what is happiness? For a long time, psychologists assumed that trying to answer this question was trivial and unscientific. In the last few decades, however, this eternal question has become amenable to scientific scrutiny. From geneticists and neuroscientists to clinical and humanistic psychologists, answers are beginning to emerge. The new field of "Positive Psychology" is especially interested in unravelling this riddle. My work has been focused on one aspect of happiness, which I call the flow experience. It is what we feel when we become completely immersed in some physical or mental challenge, to the extent of forgetting time, and even ourselves. This is a universal human feeling reported by people of all ages, races, and social conditions, and one of the main conditions of happiness. What makes the flow experience especially important is the fact that it does not depend on good fortune or material comfort and is thus relatively speaking within our control. I will describe the elements of flow, and some of the recent work that helps to illuminate it." Vortrag, gehalten am 2. Juli 2007 in der Carl Friedrich von Siemens Stiftung. Der Abend wurde geleitet von Professor Dr. Martin Reincke. Das Video wurde produziert von der Tele-Akademie (https://www.tele-akademie.de). Erstausstrahlung: 19. Oktober 2008. © SWR / Mihály Csíkszentmihályi