The following article was published
in the Herzliyan, winter 2008 issue.
“BECOMING HAPPIER IS A LIFELONG PURSUIT,” writes Tal Ben-Shahar of
IDC’s New School of Psychology. Dr. Ben-Shahar, whose class in
“Positive Psychology” was the most popular at Harvard University,
has found IDC to be the perfect destination in his own pursuits.
“I was looking for a place to teach in Israel that would be
dynamic and, most importantly, have a Zionist mission. IDC is just
that place,” said Ben-Shahar about his decision to join IDC’s
faculty.
Ben-Shahar’s interest in positive psychology initially came from
his own experience and the revelation that so-called success
doesn’t necessarily breed happiness.
“I was doing well as an undergraduate student at Harvard, I was a
top athlete, I had a good social life - and I was unhappy. It was
then that I realized that the internal matters more to one's
levels of wellbeing than the external, and it was then that I got
into psychology. After studying positive psychology, and
benefiting from it, I wanted to share what I learned with others.”
According to Ben-Shahar, the realm of self-help, or enhancing the
quality of one’s life, has been dominated by pop-psychology:
“In many self-help seminars and books currently being offered,
there's a lot of fun and charisma, and relatively little
substance. They promise five quick steps to happiness, the three
secrets of success and four ways to find your perfect lover.
These are usually empty promises, and over the years people have
become cynical about self-help.”
On the other hand, explains Ben-Shahar, academia, which may offer
substance and depth, seldom reaches the mainstream population.
What positive psychology in general, and Ben-Shahar’s class in
particular can do, therefore, is “bridge between the ivory tower
and Main Street, between the rigor of academia and the fun of the
self-help movement.”
Apparently Ben-Shahar is succeeding in his mission to help others
lead a happier, more fulfilled life. In 2003, at the end of his
first positive psychology course at Harvard, over 20% of the
students commented that it had improved the quality of their
lives.
The Positive Psychology class now being taught at IDC is fairly
similar to its forerunner at Harvard, only ‘new and improved.’ In
a young field like positive psychology, Ben-Shahar explains, new
research is emerging daily and he does his best to constantly
incorporate this into the class.
One feature that has not changed is that while students hand in
research papers and take exams as they would in any other class,
in Positive Psychology they are also asked to apply the material
and see how it can both improve their own well-being and
contribute to their community.
Ben-Shahar’s emphasis on the importance of contributing not only
to one’s own personal happiness but to the greater good resonates
strongly with the overall mission of both the New School of
Psychology and IDC as a whole: to educate today’s youth, and by
that to improve tomorrow’s society. As Ben-Shahar writes in
Happier, “I believe that if enough people recognize the true
nature of happiness as the ultimate currency, we will witness
society-wide abundance not only of happiness, but of goodness.”
If the first step towards greater societal wellbeing is to improve
personal happiness, what better way to start than by using Ben-Shahar’s
book, Happier, full of practical advice and things to do to
improve one’s level of fulfillment?
One of the book’s suggestions is that rather than asking, “Am I
happy?” which Ben-Shahar calls a closed question that leads to a
misleading yes or no answer, we are better off asking “How can I
become happier?” an open question that leads us to view the
pursuit of happiness as an ongoing process in which we aspire
towards a better, happier state. Another suggestion is to write a
daily list of things one is thankful for. “People who regularly
express gratitude are more optimistic, more successful and
happier,” says Ben-Shahar.
At IDC, one thing everyone has to be thankful for is Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar.