It is much easier to grieve than to rejoice

Mikhari Chiksen Miharai (1934-2021) Hungarian, psychologist

On October 20, mikhari Chiksen Mihalay, the "father of flow," died at the age of 87.

Born in 1934 in Fuume, Italy, Mihari immigrated to the United States at the age of 22 to attend the University of Chicago and earn a doctorate. After teaching at the University of Chicago for 30 years, he transferred to Clermont Research University and founded the "Quality of Life Research Center" here. In 2000, he and the American psychologist Martin Seligman, who proposed the concept of "learned helplessness", published an article "Introduction to Positive Psychology" in the journal American Psychologist, which brought positive psychology, an emerging psychology, into the field of vision of more people.

As one of the founders of positive psychology, Mihaly is best known for his research on the concept of "flow". His Flow, Discover Flow, and Creativity have become world-class bestsellers, especially Flow, which has been translated into more than thirty languages since its publication in 1990. The so-called "flow", in Mihaly's view, is the optimal experience. When the optimal experience arises, "one can devote all one's attention to achieving one's goal; there is no disorder to rectify, no threat to the ego, no need for distraction and defense." ”

At first glance, it sounds like chicken soup for the soul, and many people preconceived that it is a style that favors subjective experience before reading Mihaly's works, but in fact he has done a very solid empirical investigation. The word "flow" is also condensed from 100,000 survey data. Mihaly equipped the subjects with an electronic pager for a week and made 8 irregular calls a day. When called, the subjects recorded their inner experiences at that time. Experiments have found that they mostly use words like this to describe how they feel when they are in the best experience: "it seems to float up", "a torrent leads me." When in a state of "flow," people don't feel the time, and they feel energetic and satisfied when they accomplish their goals.

This is the opposite of what Mikhari calls "spiritual entropy.". "Spiritual entropy" is also a new concept proposed in the book "Flow". In physics, "entropy" is a measure of the degree of chaos in a system, and Mihali uses it to measure inner order. He believes that our daily mental movements are bound to produce all kinds of entropy, and interpersonal relationships, work, goods, wealth, etc. will disturb you from time to time. But happiness is the orderly flow of the heart, and a person who has been in a state of "flow" for a long time is more likely to feel happy than a person who is in chaos and disorder. In the chapter "The Joy of Work", Mihaly also uses the example of Ku Ding Xie Niu, and Zhuangzi's expression of "skill in the Tao" is also in line with "flow".

Mihali noted that there is a widespread perception that adventurous people have a sick need. It may be to make up for the shadow of childhood, or to seek excitement to escape the stresses of life. But he found that what was addictive to adventure was not "the morbid thrill of chasing danger," but "a sense of having a way to control potential danger." According to the interviewee, "More and more perfect self-control creates a feeling of pain and pleasure... In battle, it is not the self that is confronted, but the spiritual entropy that disorganizes consciousness. Anyone who has experienced flow knows that deep happiness is the result of strict self-discipline and concentration."

Occupations subject to the same bias may also include writers and artists. Mihaly pointedly pointed out, "Some of my peers who study literature say that a pessimistic perspective is the mystery of life. I think it's just self-indulgent nonsense. It is much easier to grieve than to rejoice. I know people who hold a tragic outlook on life, which is a way of escapism. Decadence, emptiness, and despair are not characteristics of creativity, just as it is easy to imitate the appearance of an artist's "wandering skeleton", it is easy to reproduce the lazy and liberated character, but what really makes them theirs is the invisible "flow experience" that is repeatedly oblivious and engaged.