The Intersection of Art and Positive Psychology. A Unique Perspective

I recently watched New Look, a series about Dior’s post-WWII France revival mission through art. In the series, Dior uses art to teach the people of France how to live again, not just survive. It sparked a personal reflection on positive psychology's intersection with the arts. Positive psychology, focusing on human strengths and happiness, is relevant to artist well-being and the industry, emphasising the role of art in collective well-being and self-knowledge. Despite its potential, positive psychology remains unfamiliar in the arts sector. Still, recent discussions about well-being indicate its growing relevance. This reflection also prompted consideration of what I am learning in my Master of Applied Positive Psychology and how I might combine this with my passion for the arts.?

For those unfamiliar (which, if you work in the arts, is probably many of you!), positive psychology is a branch of psychology focused on human strengths and happiness (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). This field was introduced by Martin Seligman in 1998, who believed psychology had become too focused on treating mental illness and studying weakness; he created the field to balance psychology to its original intended purpose: to make life better for all (Seligman, 1999).

Positive psychologists are primarily concerned with the positive aspects of individuals and communities, studying what is right about us and how to cultivate this rather than fixing what is wrong (Peterson, 2006). Seligman’s initial theories (2002) claimed that there were three paths to happiness: the first was to seek pleasure by maximising positive emotions and minimising negative ones, the second was to live a life of engagement and achieve flow, which could be done by identifying your character strengths and learning how to apply them, and the third was to live a life of meaning, to serve something bigger than yourself.

Reflecting on Dior's post-WWII era, positive psychology’s initial theories had promise for artists and art enthusiasts. For instance, Art has always been a medium to foster positive emotions for audiences and artists, with artists often attesting to the healing power of the creative process. Similarly, achieving flow is one of the most coveted states for creative productivity; hence, learning how to accomplish this is something many artists would find valuable. Dior’s example also shows us that the principles of positive psychology have been around for some time. Indeed, the roots of positive psychology can be traced back to Aristotle's philosophical teaching of ‘’eudaemonia,’’ which roughly translates to human flourishing (Schwartz & Sharpe, 2006; J?rgensen & Nafstad, 2004).

Despite this, working in the creative industries for years, I have rarely heard positive psychology discussed amongst colleagues or friends, highlighting its limited familiarity within the sector. Recently, though, conversations about well-being have become more common due to the nature of the arts sector, which is characterised by regular rejection, high competition, and financial insecurity. However, when I bring up positive psychology in these conversations, most people need help understanding its relevance. This is a shame because, over time, positive psychology has evolved and become even more relevant for the arts.

Initially, the field received criticism for the trickiness in defining what constitutes as positive. For example, negative emotions can lead to positive outcomes and be considered positive (Tamir & Gross, 2011). Other researchers also began to question the downsides of labelling all negative emotions as bad. They pointed out that sometimes negativity is a natural and adaptive way of coping, and labelling this reaction as bad might lead some people to suppress negative emotions (Held, 2004), which can have adverse health effects (Gross, 1997). This criticism, otherwise known as toxic positivity, has also made its way into public discourse, including the arts; indeed, of the few artist friends who did understand what positive psychology was said, they thought it had to do with ‘’belief and optimism, but it is unhealthy if it was used to cover up difficult emotions’’. ???

In response to these criticisms, Paul Wong (2011) launched what is now called the second wave of positive psychology, arguing that the field should focus on helping people find meaning instead of just happiness. Wong called on researchers to recognise that negative emotions and experiences can lead to positive growth. Researchers started following this lead and began embracing the duality of emotions, exploring how rather than avoid suffering, we can give it meaning (Lomas & Ivtzan, 2016). During this second wave, Seligman (2011) even revised his theories, stating that the new goal of positive psychology was well-being, which includes feeling good and having meaning, good relationships, and accomplishment.

These developments have expanded positive psychology’s relevance for its applications in the arts and mitigate concerns about toxic positivity. Firstly, it provides a more comprehensive approach to how art could enhance the quality of life for those who work in the arts. For instance, creating art can help artists find meaning in their suffering. Moreover, it provides reasoning for how art can be used to improve the well-being of other people, such as through practices like art therapy, which has been successfully used as a therapeutic tool to treat mental illness and improve well-being (Haeyen et al., 2018; Hu et al., 2021), or even to help communities come together to understand their collective trauma and transform it into something positive, as we saw with the Dior example.

?Additionally, the shift in focus towards well-being has expanded the reach of positive psychology to include those working in artistic institutions, like my friends, who have begun discussing the need to improve the well-being of their sector. However, recently, our master’s class conducted a community enquiry into the general public's conceptualisations of well-being, showing that people’s understanding of this topic varies significantly. This poses significant challenges when applying positive psychology to organisations and workplaces—something for me to keep in mind.

Whilst the second wave of positive psychology expanded its relevance, including to the arts, it was not without its criticisms, which included a cultural bias towards Western ideas of well-being and methodological issues that cast doubt on the discipline’s research findings (Van Zyl et al., 2024). For example, Seligman’s second-wave theory of well-being, which he called PERMA, was rapidly applied to schools and workplaces worldwide. However, critics believed it was being applied before sufficient evidence supported it (Donaldson et al., 2022). These criticisms have implications for positive psychology’s applicability to the arts, especially for those friends I know who are looking to improve the well-being of the sector, where cultural and gender diversity is relatively common, as well as those teaching in performing arts schools who might look to the traditional education sector where PERMA has been widely implemented but also critiqued.

A new third wave of positive psychology has begun adopting a broader, interdisciplinary approach to rectify these issues, focusing on the systems and cultural factors that impact well-being (Van Zyl & Rothmann, 2022). These developments strengthen its applicability to the arts. Recent studies have also shown that positive psychology can positively affect well-being when applied through evidence-based interventions (Carr et al., 2023). However, we must be cautious here; not every intervention works for each person, and individual differences and cultural contexts can impact effectiveness (Antoine et al., 2018; Ciarrochi et al., 2021). This is something to consider if I ever set out to apply positive psychology to arts institutions. For example, performing arts institutions employ people from various cultural contexts, including those who identify as BIPOC and LGBQTI+. For this reason, it is essential to understand the varying cultural conceptualisations of well-being present within an artistic institution and consider how this might affect the success of any interventions.

Another interesting point to consider is how art might help us explore positive psychology concepts and better understand their relevance to our own experiences of well-being. Recently, I visited an exhibition titled DAY by Louise Bourgeois at the Gallery of NSW, which exemplifies this point. The exhibition examines the polarities the artist uncovers in herself in her quest for emotional truth in self-knowledge. The exhibition brochure validates the evolution of positive psychology to reconsider the value of positive and negative emotions, which begins by saying, ‘night and day: two states, two conditions in opposition. However, bound together, impossible to separate, each unthinkable without the other.’ The exhibition, a retrospective of the artist’s life work, provides numerous examples of how the artist has explored the duality of human emotions and experiences. The exhibition ultimately illustrates how her creative process was a means through which she transformed these experiences into something positive for herself and her audiences. Her art helped audiences make meaning out of their suffering, resonating deeply with her experiences of motherhood, feminism, and loss. This exhibition is just one example of how much art and positive psychology have in common. It is no wonder that a whole field, Positive Humanities, has recently emerged to study the relationship between art and human flourishing, emphasising intrinsic benefits such as personal enjoyment, individual growth, and meaning-making (Tay et al., 2021).

Considering all this, I believe positive psychology holds much potential for artists, art lovers, and artistic institutions looking to improve their well-being. When considering whether I might direct the product of my learnings to this industry, I am reminded that an interdisciplinary, culturally sensitive, and individualised approach will be necessary. I might also be challenged by the fact that most people working in the arts have never heard of positive psychology or may have misconceptions about its relevance and value for them. Here, it will be essential to demonstrate how much art and positive psychology have in common, especially when considering how and why artists approach their work and its broader value to society. Drawing on my experience at The Gallery of NSW, I might even consider utilising art to communicate positive psychology’s value to this audience.

References

Antoine, P., Dauvier, B., Andreotti, E., & Congard, A. (2018). Individual differences in the effects of a positive psychology intervention: Applied psychology. Personality and Individual Differences, 122, 140–147. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.10.024

Carr, A., Finneran, L., Boyd, C., Shirey, C., Canning, C., Stafford, O., Lyons, J., Cullen, K., Prendergast, C., Corbett, C., Drumm, C., & Burke, T. (2024). The evidence-base for positive psychology interventions: A mega-analysis of meta-analyses. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 19(2), 191–205. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2023.2168564

Ciarrochi, J., Hayes, S. C., Oades, L. G., & Hofmann, S. G. (2022). Toward a unified framework for positive psychology interventions: Evidence-based processes of change in coaching, prevention, and training. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 809362. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.809362

Donaldson, S. I., Van Zyl, L. E., & Donaldson, S. I. (2022). Perma+4: A framework for work-related wellbeing, performance and positive organizational psychology 2. 0. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 817244. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.817244

Duckworth, A. L., Steen, T. A., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2005). Positive psychology in clinical practice. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, pp. 1, 629–651. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.clinpsy.1.102803.144154

Eudaimonia | definition & facts | Britannica. (2024, February 19). https://www.britannica.com/topic/eudaimonia

Gross, J. J., & Levenson, R. W. (1997). Hiding feelings: The acute effects of inhibiting negative and positive emotion. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 106(1), 95–103. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-843X.106.1.95

Haeyen, S., Van Hooren, S., Van Der Veld, W. M., & Hutschemaekers, G. (2018). Promoting mental health versus reducing mental illness in art therapy with patients with personality disorders: A quantitative study. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 58, 11–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2017.12.009

Held, B. S. (2004). The negative side of positive psychology. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 44(1), 9–46. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167803259645

Hu, J., Zhang, J., Hu, L., Yu, H., & Xu, J. (2021). Art therapy: A complementary treatment for mental disorders. Frontiers in Psychology, p. 12, 686005. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.686005

J?rgensen, I. S., & Nafstad, H. E. (2004). Positive psychology: Historical, philosophical, and epistemological perspectives. In P. A. Linley & S. Joseph (Eds.), Positive Psychology in Practice (1st ed., pp. 34–21). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470939338.ch2

Larsen, R. J., Buss, D. M., Wismeijer, A., Song, J., & Berg, S. M. van den. (2017). Personality psychology: Domains of knowledge about human nature. McGraw Hill Education. https://research.utwente.nl/en/publications/personality-psychology-domains-of-knowledge-about-human-nature

Lomas, T., & Ivtzan, I. (2016). Second wave positive psychology: Exploring the positive–negative dialectics of wellbeing.?Journal of Happiness Studies,?17(4), 1753–1768. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-015-9668-y

Lykken, D., & Tellegen, A. (1996). Happiness is a stochastic phenomenon. Psychological Science, 7(3), 186–189. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.1996.tb00355.x

Pawelski, J. O. (2020). The elements model: Toward a new generation of positive psychology interventions. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 15(5), 675–679. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2020.1789710

Peterson, C. (2006). A primer in positive psychology. Oxford University Press.

Schwartz, B., & Sharpe, K. E. (2006). Practical wisdom: Aristotle meets positive psychology. Journal of Happiness Studies, 7(3), 377–395. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-005-3651-y

Seligman, M. E. (1999). The president’s address. American Psychologist, 54(8), 559–562.

Seligman, M. E. P. (2002). Authentic happiness: Using the new positive psychology to realize your potential for lasting fulfillment. New York: Free Press.

Seligman, M. E. P. (2011). Flourish: A visionary new understanding of happiness and well-being (1. Free Press hardcover ed). Free Press.

Seligman, M. E. P., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction. American Psychologist, 55(1), 5–14. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.5

Tamir, M., & Gross, J. J. (2011). Beyond pleasure and pain? Emotion regulation and positive psychology. In Designing positive psychology: Taking stock and moving forward (pp. 89–100). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195373585.003.0006

Tay, L., & Pawelski, J. O. (2021). L. Tay & J. O. Pawelski (Eds.),?The Oxford handbook of the positive humanities?(pp. 1–577). Oxford University Press.

Van Zyl, L. E., Gaffaney, J., Van Der Vaart, L., Dik, B. J., & Donaldson, S. I. (2024). The critiques and criticisms of positive psychology: A systematic review. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 19(2), 206–235. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2023.2178956

Van Zyl, L. E., & Rothmann, S. (2022). Grand challenges for positive psychology: Future perspectives and opportunities. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 833057. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.833057

Wong, P.T.P (2011). Positive psychology 2.0: Towards a balanced interactive model of the good life. Canadian Psychology (2), pp. 69-81

?

?

?

?