Psychology’s Purpose—Lily Caswell

 In Seligman’s address, he says that “since World War II, psychology has become a science largely about healing. It concentrates on repairing damage within a disease model of human functioning. Such almost exclusive attention to pathology neglects the flourishing individual and the thriving community.. When we became solely a healing profession, we forgot our larger mission: that of making the lives of all people better.” I really like how Seligman makes the point that psychology’s purpose is to make people’s lives better rather than just to heal people with mental health issues. 

What do y’all think?

I commented on Emory’s and Song’s posts.

Comments

  1. Song WhittingtonApril 4, 2022 at 10:45 PM

    Great thought Lily. I honestly feel like the two are interconnected. For someone with a mental illness, learning to cope and live with the illness in a healthy many can help to make that person's life better and help them flourish. With anything, there are going to be ups and downs, but I feel healing the mental illness to some degree can help improve someone's quality of life.

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  2. Braylan StringfellowApril 5, 2022 at 9:22 AM

    I do like the emphasis that Seligman has on psychology being use to improve everyone’s life and not just the mentally ill. He does not want to give up on the mentally ill, but rather he want to reach to others to improve their lives as well.

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