“I believe that a negative statement is poison. I’m convinced that the negative has power. It lives. And if you allow it to perch in your house, in your mind, in your life, it can take you over.” — Maya Angelou
Anxiety is a normal facet of life, and the typical individual accords it appropriate deference. People experiencing social anxiety personify their anxieties, dramatize them, and obsess about their negative implications.
We create mountains out of molehills, spending hours in tortuous anticipation of projected adverse outcomes. We beat ourselves up daily for our perceived incompetence and inability to function socially.
Social anxiety is the most common emotional malfunction in the U.S. after major depression and alcohol abuse, and the three conditions are commonly comorbid. A debilitating and chronic affliction, SAD wreaks havoc on the lives of those who experience it.
People impacted by its negative self-appraisal feel shame for their condition because it makes them feel inadequate and inferior. Shame is painful and incapacitating. It makes us feel powerless and acutely diminished. Shame compels us to hide and become invisible, withdrawing from the world and avoiding human connection.
Social interactions are clumsy, small talk is inelegant, and attempts at humor can be embarrassing. We self-prophesize criticism, ridicule, and rejection. Our symptoms are repressive and intractable, imposing counterproductive thoughts and behaviors. SAD establishes its authority through defeatist measures produced by inaccurate and unsound interpretations of reality.
Employing negative and self-defeating words and expressions exacerbates our condition because we are already symptomatically inclined toward negativity and adverse self-appraisal.
“Dr. Mullen is doing impressive work helping the world. He is the pioneer of proactive neuroplasticity utilizing DRNI – deliberate, repetitive, neural information.” – WeVoice (Madrid, Málaga)
Words Have Immense Power
Understanding the immense power of words is crucial. They can influence, encourage, and even heal. Words are not just a means of communication but a source of compassion, creativity, courage, and intimacy. They can evoke desire, emotion, fear, and joy. And most importantly, they can significantly lift our spirits, inspire our imaginations, or plunge us into despair. But with the right words, we can find hope and inspiration in our recovery journey.
Recovery from social anxiety and related conditions is not just about understanding and alleviating our irrational fears and anxieties. It’s a transformative journey toward self-empowerment. It’s about rebuilding our self-esteem and motivation. And rediscovering our inner strengths. It’s a challenging journey, but one that is full of growth potential and the promise of a brighter future.
Employing negative and self-defeating words and expressions exacerbates our condition because we are already symptomatically inclined toward negativity and adverse self-appraisal.
Replace or overwhelm our negative thoughts and behaviors with healthy, productive ones.
Produce rapid, concentrated positive stimulation to offset the abundance of negative information in our brain’s metabolism.
Regenerate our self-esteem and reintegrate into society through mindfulness and reinforcement of our character strengths, virtues, attributes, and achievements.
“It is one of the best investments I have made in myself, and I will continue to improve and benefit from it for the rest of my life.” – Nick P.
Negative Trajectory
Our journey towards negativity begins in childhood, where disturbances prompt the formation of our negative core and intermediate beliefs. These beliefs, in turn, establish the attitudes, rules, and assumptions that shape our self-beliefs and relationships with others and the world. We express these inaccurate self-beliefs in our behaviors and automatic negative thoughts.
Negative Overabundance
Negative words do not just influence us; we are consumed and conditioned by them. Some of us repeatedly use the exact unfortunate words, unconsciously reinforcing their power. The more we hear, read, or speak a word or phrase, the more it shapes our beliefs and attitudes.
Experts speculate that, by age sixteen, we have heard the word “no” from our parents roughly 135,000 times. This overabundance of negativity can have a detrimental effect on our mental health, supporting our feelings of helplessness and unworthiness.
Our brain accelerates and consolidates learning (and unlearning) through repetition. The illusory truth effect describes how repeatedly hearing the same false information compels us to accept it as accurate and truthful. Recognizing the harmful impact of words and expressions is a formidable step towards breaking free from their influence and fostering a healthier mindset.
Neural Negativity
Our neural network, the complex system of neurons in our brain, has structured itself around emotionally hostile information. It is not just the words we say out loud in criticism and conversations. The self-annihilating words we silently assign to ourselves are even more destructive. They drive our neural network to transmit chemical hormones that impair our logic, reasoning, and communication – neurotransmissions that adversely impact the parts of our brain that regulate our memory, concentration, and emotions.
Our overall recovery objective is to replace negative neural inputs with positive, productive ones. One of many effective coping mechanisms, positive reframing, is simply turning a negative perspective into a positive one. There are always multiple perspectives to any situation. While we may not control everything, we control how we react and respond, empowering us to choose a positive and productive path forward.
This strategy of positive expression helps us replace negative thoughts and behaviors and allows us to take control of our mental health journey, generating personal growth and empowerment. By embracing this approach, we pave the way for a brighter, more fulfilling future.
Negative Words Categories
We all have adverse thoughts and reactions. That’s the nature of being human. Those of us experiencing social anxiety disorder and related conditions carry an unfortunate abundance of negativity in our neural networks due to our negative trajectory and symptomatology, which refers to the pattern of negative thoughts and the symptoms of our condition. We must work harder than the non-afflicted to offset this abundance in our brains’ metabolism.
The Categories of Negative Words
Three categories or types of negative words and expressions concern us.
Negative Absolutes
Qualifiers
Pressure words.
These words can further our isolation and avoidance of relationships, devalue our commitment, and provoke our sense of incompetence and inadequacy.
It is essential and empowering to become mindful of and eliminate these types of words from our thoughts and vocabulary. This awareness and practice of mindfulness is not just a step but a necessary tool toward personal growth and improvement. By taking control of our language, we can boost our confidence and sense of empowerment.
Pressure Words like “should” and “would” dilute our commitment. Saying “I should start my diet” implies uncertainty and ambiguity. These expressions allow us to change our minds, procrastinate, and potentially fail. (We are either on a diet or will be on a diet.) The pressure stems from the guilt of ostensibly doing nothing (“I should’ve done that”). Compare “I shouldn’t drink at the office party” to “I will not drink at the office party.” We take control and feel confident in our decisions by making a firm commitment.
Negative Absolute Words and Statements
The impact of “won’t,” “can’t,” and the like is obvious. These are examples of negative absolute words, which are words that express a complete lack of possibility or potential. Consider the following two statements: “I won’t learn anything from that lecture” and “I always learn something.” Which one offers the probability we will attend? By avoiding negative absolute words, we open ourselves to possibilities. Other negative absolute words include “never,” “impossible,” and “every time.” (Every time I try…)
Conditional Wordsand Statements
Conditional words and statements are contingent upon something else. For something to happen, something else must be implicated. A conditional clause is made up of two parts, a main clause and an “if” clause. An example is “If my teacher knew how hard I studied, she’d give me a passing grade.”
Conditional words like “possibly” and “maybe” weaken our resolve and commitment. They originate in doubt and manifest in avoidance and procrastination. “Maybe I will clean my room” is not a firm commitment. Ask any adolescent. We gain clarity and feel more decisive in our commitments by eliminating these words.
Qualifying and conditional words or statements provide an excuse to deviate and obfuscate. “I will not drink at the office party” is a more robust commitment than “I will not drink at the party unless I get nervous.” Qualifying or conditional words and statements are pre-justifications for our lapses and failures. Other conditional words include “ought,” “might,” and “have to.” Example: “I might have won if only …”
The Word Hate
Some experts argue that the word or sense of hate has value in healing, particularly in the context of acknowledging and processing strong emotions. However, it’s important to remember that these sentiments and the word itself are often associated with rage, resentment, and fear, feelings we strive to manage and alleviate in recovery from social anxiety. Managing the word ‘hate’ is a crucial part of our emotional recovery process.
It’s easy to be uncomfortable with opposing views or beliefs, especially if they can be harmful. We may feel sorry for beliefs borne of ignorance. We may feel anger or disdain if disinformation perpetrates opinions (deliberate inaccuracy for personal gain). However, it is never profitable to hate them.
We reclaim our power by actively eliminating these negative words and feelings from our self-referencing thoughts and usage. This intentional activity prompts us to take control of our language and, in turn, our thoughts and behaviors. This process can lead to positive change and personal growth, allowing us to focus on more constructive and empowering ways of thinking and speaking.
WHY IS YOUR SUPPORT SO NECESSARY AND ESSENTIAL? ReChanneling develops and implements programs to (1) mitigate symptoms of social anxiety and related conditions and (2) pursue personal goals and objectives – harnessing our intrinsic aptitude for extraordinary living. Our paradigmatic approach targets the personality through empathy, collaboration, and program integration, utilizing neuroscience and psychology, including proactive neuroplasticity, cognitive-behavioral modification, positive psychology, and techniques designed to regenerate self-esteem. All donations support scholarships for groups and workshops.
INDIVIDUAL RECOVERY. The symptoms of social anxiety make it challenging for some to participate in a collective workshop. Dr. Mullen works one-on-one with a select group of individuals uneasy in a group setting. ReChanneling offers scholarships to accommodate the costs. What is missed in group activities is provided in our monthly, no-cost Graduate Recovery Group. In this supportive community, graduates interact with others who have completed the program. Contact ‘rmullenphd@gmail.com’.
Committing to recovery is one of the hardest things you will ever do. It takes enormous courage and the realization that you are of value, consequential, and deserving of happiness.
This reposts an article recently published on Where the Light Gets In. The conventional pathographic model of mental health focuses on the diagnosis rather than the individual. Which reduces us to a label. It is crucial to impress upon the client that they are not defined by their diagnoses. But by their character strengths, virtues, and attributes. The Wellness Model of Mental Health recognizes that we do not recover from distress by focusing on our defects and deficiencies. But on our strengths and assets.
When we label individuals or groups, we reduce them to a single, usually negative, characteristic or descriptor based on an event or behavior. As a result, we view them (or ourselves) through the label and filter out evidence that contradicts that stereotype. Labeling by diagnoses has a similar outcome.
Arbitrarily evaluating someone based on an isolated incidents or behavior is likely an inaccurate representation of that individual. One negative behavior or incident does not define someone’s character. Rather than focus on a label, it is more authentic to value the positive contributions of the person or group. We can then relate with compassionate insight, recognizing the diversity of human thought and experience.
Additionally, attempting to distinguish symptoms and identifying specific etiological and risk factors in emotional malfunction leads to speculation, errors, and misdiagnosis. This likely results in faulty treatment programs and adverse medications.
It is important to recognize that the person experiencing an emotional malfunction knows more about its personal impact than their diagnostician or therapist. This does not imply that error is inevitable, although it happens often with social anxiety disorder. It just posits the possibility.A healthy collaboration of client awareness and a doctor patient mutual dynamic is crucial to proper evaluation. In the wise words of Hippocrates, the pioneer of modern medicine. “If you are not your own doctor, you are a fool.”
“It is one of the best investments I have made in myself, and I will continue to improve and benefit from it for the rest of my life.” – Nick P.
Five to one, one in five. No one gets out alive…
Margaret November 3, 2023 Where the Light Gets In
The good days are finally outweighing the bad. And it’s been a long time coming.
I don’t doubt the role medication plays in this… in fact, I’d go as far as to say they’re probably the only reason my mood remains relatively stable. In a pre-emptive strike, my medication was increased recently.
I say “pre-emptive,” but in truth, I’d noticed the beginnings of a wobble. I’ve essentially re-entered the world as an actual adulting adult again. That’s not without its pressures. I didn’t really want to hang around and find out if weebles wobble enough that they eventually do fall down, so I did the only sensible thing and went back to my psych team to tell them that I was under a bit more stress than I’d previously been and I’d like to protect myself against the impact of that and the upcoming winter months. I had enough niggly signs that they agreed it was best to up the dose and add in some extra support.
To some, that might seem cowardly or lazy. Why should I think that just because I’m dealing with normal life stressors, that warrants upping my medication? Well, because I know my own limits. I know that whilst my mood wasn’t deteriorating, there is absolutely the potential for it to do so as I emerge into the world again.
Am I under any more pressure than anyone else? No. Am I, for whatever reason, less able to cope with those pressures than most people… yes. I recognize that. I accept it. And for the sake of my family, I have to be accountable for my own emotional and mental wellbeing.
I have deliberately shied away from talking about labels and diagnoses. This is the one area I really struggle with because it feels like I have more letters after my name than I can even count.
The one I struggle most with is “bipolar.” That’s a hefty label to carry around.
When you’re given a diagnosis, most psychiatrists are so risk-averse that nobody ever actually removes a previous diagnosis from your notes, even if there are questions over it.
When you’re given a diagnosis, most psychiatrists are so risk-averse that nobody ever actually removes a previous diagnosis from your notes, even if there are questions over it. Even if they don’t believe it fits. Even if there isn’t enough evidence for it to stand anymore.
Bipolar is the one I hate with a fervour matched only by my hatred of Nigel Farage. In the same breath that I was given the diagnosis, I was told that the condition has a one in five mortality rate, and that’s why I was being kept such a close eye on.
That’s a terrifying statistic to live with. I have a higher chance of dying from the illness I have than if I’d been diagnosed with some cancers.
True to form, this diagnosis simply fuelled my fear and anxiety. And when I’m anxious, I obsess. The intrusive thoughts ramp up and become harder to manage.
In the wake of being told those figures, I became sure that The Doors song “Five to One” was prophetic. That the lyrics (I refer you to this cleverly titled blog…) were a precursor to a fate that I was powerless to avoid. Despite the fact that being one of the four in five is statistically more likely, I convinced myself I’d been given a death sentence. And so, that one line in the song played on a loop in my head. It went round and round so often in my head that there was barely any room for anything else.
I cursed the doctor for their thoughtless delivery. I cursed a God I didn’t even believe in for his cruelty. And I grieved for a life I was now sure would be cut short. I was waiting for the death knell to sound, and yet, somehow, it felt as though it was ringing in my ears every single day. Except that the death knell was clearly Jim Morrison in this case.
Why do I hate the label of “bipolar” so much? Well, because I feel like it doesn’t fit. It feels like a lazy way of neatly packaging up a whole truckload of trauma into one nice, neat little word, It feels like a medical cop-out.
The same doctor who delivered the death knell also told me that “bipolar disorder is the closest thing the psychiatric world has to high blood pressure. They know what medications work, the know how to control it and what works without exception” – except that’s pure bollocks.
I say it’s bollocks because there is no clinical test for the disorder… nothing in your blood that can be measured, nothing in a brain scan that will be evident. There is not a single medical marker other than your psychiatric evaluation – which isn’t so much an evaluation as a run through your life history.
I’ve never met a male with the diagnosis, although I’m aware they do exist. What I have seen, however, are scores of women with histories of sexual, physical, or emotional abuse with the diagnosis. I’ve seen dozens of women who are untreated peri or full-blown menopausal with the diagnosis.
And it leaves me wondering if the label is a cop-out for writing a woman off without actually hearing her.
I’ve variously been told in my life that I suffer from psychotic depression, that I have Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder (having someone tell you that your personality is a disorder is pretty shit too by the way…), that I have OCD traits, anxiety (okay, this one I agree with). I don’t know that any of these labels are helpful for anything other than permitting me to access mental health support.
The thing is, those labels are all over my medical notes. So now I have to practically be dying before I’ll se a GP for a physical ailment, lest they put it down to my mental health…
WHY IS YOUR SUPPORT SO NECESSARY AND ESSENTIAL? ReChanneling develops and implements programs to (1) mitigate symptoms of social anxiety and related conditions and (2) pursue personal goals and objectives – harnessing our intrinsic aptitude for extraordinary living. Our paradigmatic approach targets the personality through empathy, collaboration, and program integration utilizing neuroscience and psychology, including proactive neuroplasticity, cognitive-behavioral modification, positive psychology, and techniques designed to regenerate self-esteem. All donations support scholarships for groups and workshops.
INDIVIDUAL RECOVERY. The symptoms of social anxiety make it challenging for some to participate in a collective workshop. Dr. Mullen works one-on-one with a select group of individuals uneasy in a group setting. ReChanneling offers scholarships to accommodate the costs. What is absent in group activities is provided in our monthly, no-cost Graduate Recovery Group. In this supportive community, graduates interact with others who have completed the program. Contact ‘rmullenphd@gmail.com’.
Committing to recovery is one of the hardest things you will ever do. It takes enormous courage and the realization that you are of value, consequential, and deserving of happiness.
What does it take to keep things at ReChanneling running smoothly?
Videos
Educational videos, like the above, require meeting diverse criteria. We currently have seven videos on proactive neuroplasticity and six videos on recovery posted on YouTube and BitChute.
Social Media
ReChanneling is currently promoted on BitChute, Bluesky, Facebook, Google, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads, TikTok, and YouTube.
Online Monthly Discussions
ReChanneling provides monthly discussions hosted by Dr. Mullen to subscribers covering innovations and recovery from social anxiety and related conditions, which include depression, self-esteem issues, substance-related disorders, as well as multiple associated emotional malfunctions.
Each discussion is a valuable opportunity to gain insights and strategies for your personal growth journey. Past topics have included Core and Intermediate Beliefs, Setting Boundaries, The Irrationality of Shame and Guilt, Hemispheric Synchronization, Fight-or-Flight Stress Responses, Childhood Disturbance, and Proactive and Active Neuroplasticity.
Open to Subscribers, these discussion groups are a regular feature of our calendar. They are held on the third Tuesday of every month from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM Pacific Time. Topics and links are announced roughly three weeks before the event.
Workshops
10-session Social Anxiety Recovery Workshops are held quarterly. Monthly online graduate recovery support is provided pro bono.
“… one of the best investments I have made in myself, and I will continue to improve and benefit from it for the rest of my life.” – Nick P.
“Rechanneling’s Social Anxiety Workshop produced results within a few sessions, with continuing improvement throughout the workshop and behind.” – Liz D.
“I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this program. I feel so confident and ready to utilize these resources/tools you’ve provided.” – Trish G.
Website
Weekly postings regarding emotional malfunction (social anxiety, depression, etc.), self-empowerment, and psychobiography are provided on the ReChanneling website. Contributing articles to other websites.
Publications
At least one peer-reviewed article or chapter annually. We are currently editing with Springer Publications our upcoming book, tentatively titled The War for our Emotional Well-Being. Recovery from Social Anxiety and Related Emotional Malfunctions.
Seminars, Lectures
Two classes are currently posted on Academia.edu. Various presentations include the Lake Shore Unitarian Society of Illinois, The Elizabeth Taylor 50+ Network/San Francisco AIDs Foundation, Tedx, World Congress on Education, WeVoice (Madrid, Málaga), and the APA Western Division Conference.
WHY IS YOUR SUPPORT SO NECESSARY AND ESSENTIAL? ReChanneling develops and implements programs to (1) mitigate symptoms of social anxiety and related conditions and (2) pursue personal goals and objectives – harnessing our intrinsic aptitude for extraordinary living. Our paradigmatic approach targets the personality through empathy, collaboration, and program integration utilizing neuroscience and psychology, including proactive neuroplasticity, cognitive-behavioral modification, positive psychology, and techniques designed to regenerate self-esteem. All donations support scholarships for groups and workshops.
INDIVIDUAL RECOVERY. The symptoms of social anxiety make it challenging for some to participate in a collective workshop. Dr. Mullen works one-on-one with a select group of individuals uneasy in a group setting. ReChanneling offers scholarships to accommodate the costs. What is absent in group activities is provided in our monthly, no-cost Graduate Recovery Group. In this supportive community, graduates interact with others who have completed the program. Contact ‘rmullenphd@gmail.com’.
Committing to recovery is one of the hardest things you will ever do. It takes enormous courage and the realization that you are of value, consequential, and deserving of happiness.
For each new subscriber, ReChanneling donates $25 for workshop scholarships.
Broadening the Parameters of the Psychobiography
“Broadening the Parameters of the Psychobiography. The Character Motivations of the ‘Ordinary’ Extraordinary” in C.-E. Mayer, P. Fouche, R. van Niekerk, Psychobiographical Illustrations on Meaning and Identity in Sociocultural Contexts, Palgrave-MacMillan, 2022.
Abstract
For over a century, psychobiography has focused on the eminent individual who has achieved historical or social recognition. Ignoring the character strengths of the ‘ordinary’ individual who has reached a significant and noteworthy personal milestone is a disservice to psychology and those who might benefit from this research.
Some experts claim that embracing a psychobiographic focus on the ordinary individual would pervert the process, some open the door to innovation, and others have, unwittingly, provided templates. The psychological benefits seem apparent if consideration of the character strengths and virtues of the ordinary extraordinary supplement psychobiographic research. Their motivations are no less extraordinary or worthy of consideration than those of the accomplished individual who has achieved historical or social recognition; each complements psychological research both generally and topically.
The purpose of this paper is fourfold. It suggests that psychobiography limits its potential to study the character strengths underlying motivation, persistence, and perseverance by restricting its concentration to the significant individual who has achieved historical or social recognition (the ’eminent extraordinary’). The paper recommends expanding that concentration by adopting a partnering focus on the ‘ordinary extraordinary’ who has achieved a significant and noteworthy personal milestone.
It supports the implicit theory of positive psychology, humanism, and mentor Abraham Maslow (1943) that all individuals are extraordinary by their humanness. Each possessing the potential for significant personal achievement. It disputes the notion put forward by Alexander (1988), Knight (2019), McAdams (1988), Schultz (2005), and Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000) that the examined life-narrative [of a psychobiography] should be on a ‘finished’ life, arguing the character strengths of the evolving ‘ordinary extraordinary’ could greatly assist in the psychological study of human motivation and development. It is a fundamental principle that actions are motivated to achieve individual needs; it is the role of psychology and psychobiography to research what character strengths generate that motivation, whatever their source.
The psychobiography is “usually” (du Plessis 2017: 218; McAdams 1988: 2) concerned with the extraordinariness (Cilliars and Mayer 2019; Mayer and May 2019) of accomplished individuals who have achieved historical or social recognition (Alexander 1988; Burnell et al. 2019; Carlson 1988; du Plessis 2017; Kőváry 2019; McAdams 2001; Ponterotto 2014; Runyan 1984). This can be interpreted as contradicting Schultz’s (2005: 3) description of the goal of psychobiography “as simply as ‘the understanding of persons” (du Plessis 2017: 217).
Filling the eminent extraordinary ranks is the accomplished artist, scientist, philosopher, activist, and politician (Burnell et al. 2019; Carlson 1988; du Plessis 2017; Runyon 1988). Emerging with Freud’s (1910) pathographic study of Leonardo DaVinci’s childhood, subjects include Hitler (Murray 1943), Robespierre (Gallo 1971), Stalin (Tucker 1973), Turkey President, Ataturk (Volkan and Itzkowitz 1986), Bertrand Russell (Brink 1989), Margaret Thatcher (Abse 1989), Gandhi (Erikson 1993), Virginia Woolf (Bond 2000), King Herod (Kasher 2007), Napoleon (Falk 2007) and, more recently, Paulo Coehlo (Mayer 2017), Goethe (Holm-Hadulla 2018), Frederick Douglas (Gibson 2018), Charlize Theron (Prenter et al. 2019), cult leader, Jim Jones (Kelley 2019), and Thomas Jefferson (Holowchak 2020).
Howe (1997: 236) believes the purpose of a psychobiography is to generate “ideas about possible motives and conflicts that may drive a person towards undertaking various activities.” Analyzing the character strengths of the ordinary extraordinary who has achieved a noteworthy personal milestone would significantly enhance psychological understanding of motivational character development.
Broadening the psychobiographic perspective would open new avenues of study that would benefit research into the character strengths, virtues, and attributes that facilitate motivation, persistence, and perseverance.
Examples of the ordinary extraordinary who has reached a significant and noteworthy personal milestone might include the nurse who has committed his life to children with cancer, the high school teacher who has ‘reached’ her students, the writer who has finally published. Have they not, through trial and error, attained a recognizable personal plateau of achievement? Are their character strengths, objectives, and motivations any less significant than those of the acclaimed actor or heart transplant surgeon?
“It is one of the best investments I have made in myself, and I will continue to improve and benefit from it for the rest of my life.” – Nick P.
‘Rudy’ Ruettiger’s goal was to play for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team. Undersized and undervalued, he was relegated to the scout squad. On November 8, 1975, Rudy was put into a game against Georgia Tech and, memorably, sacked their quarterback on the game’s last play. He was the first man in Notre Dame history to be carried off the field by his teammates.
Not only would a psychobiography of Rudy’s days at Notre Dame be a respectable character study of motivation, but psychology could benefit from the determination of many unheralded persons who have achieved significant and noteworthy personal milestones. Expanding current study could generate a more in-depth understanding of the qualities and characteristics that motivate any individual to achieve, or overcome adversity of any nature.
Embracing the ordinary extraordinary does not impinge on the psychobiography that has been the mainstay for over a century. It merely adds a species to the psychobiographic genus within the psychological family. A bus and a bicycle may be distinct modes of transportation, but they can both transport to a conclusion.
13.2 Supporting Arguments
The psychological knowledge gathered by psychobiography provides general and specific applications. Universal themes of the character strengths that generate motivation, persistence, and perseverance are particularized by topical relevance. The psychobiographies of Coleridge (Weissman 1990), Poe (Krutch 1926), and Emily Dickinson (Cody 1971) have their inter-relevance; those of Lincoln (Clark 1933), Nixon (Volkan et al. 1999), and Obama (Falk 2010) have theirs; as have those of Jesus (Caldwell 1976), Joseph Smith (Anderson 1999), and Muhammed (Sina 2008) theirs. Kelley’s (2019: 363) interest in the “motivational dynamics that undergird religious leaders’ often Januslike relations to their followers,” for example, supplements the latter group.
13.2.1 Implicit Superiority
The assumption that the motivational character strengths of the eminent extraordinary are more desirable to psychological study suggests an implicit arrogance towards those of the ordinary extraordinary. Society often justifies arrogance in academics, politics, the arts, and other ventures when it leads to and supports achievements (Whitbourne 2017). The academic swayed by the intimate relationship of knowledge and power is not an oddity.
So, a relevant question might be: does the eminent extraordinary provide a better source of psychological motivations than the ordinary extraordinary, or are the historically accomplished more biographically interesting? Analyzing the motivational characteristics of the eminent extraordinary is valuable to psychological research and study, but academic idolization warrants consideration.
13.2.2 Eminent as Exemplary?
It is safe to claim that not every eminent extraordinary who meets psychobiographic criteria is an exemplary role model. Many are psychologically dysfunctional, prone to clinical narcissism, megalomania, perfectionism, suicidal ideation, disconnectedness, substance abuse, hostility, and aggression. Artists Van Gogh and Pollack, philosophers Nietzsche and Rosseau, politicians Trump and Napoleon, and writers Plathe, Hemingway, and Poe are sustained by moral and physiological dysfunctions that do not comfortably fall within Seligman’s classification of character strengths and virtues (al Taher 2020; Peterson and Seligman 2004).
Successful persons are generally perceived to be passionate, continually trying to improve themselves, perpetually striving to be better. As Koulopoulos (2020: 2) noted “being successful is fundamentally about needing to win; the reasons vary, but the determination doesn’t. [Successful people] hate losing with an abiding passion.” The obsessive attention to detail and control of many successful persons are characteristics of perfectionism, and the unbridled compulsion to succeed is often diagnosable. Psychologists (Benson 2003; Flett and Hewitt 2002) have discovered that perfectionism and compulsion correlate with depression, anxiety, eating disorders, anorexia, suicide, and other mental health dysfunctions. Hallmarks of obsessive-compulsive disorders are perfectionism, the need for mental and interpersonal control, addiction to work and productivity, and a preoccupation with details (APA 2013).
Peterson and Seligman (2004) define character strengths as the good qualities that people possess rather than a compilation of their faults and issues, while Ponterotto (2014: 379) affirms that a psychobiography “may represent the worst of human nature.”
This paper recognizes that knowledge is acquired as much from the failure of a system or subject as from success and disputes the authenticity of generalizing the psychobiographic focus on the exemplary. The same argument could be made for ‘eminent,’ which is usually accepted as an adjective used to emphasize the presence of a positive quality. This argument does warrant precluding psychological research of the eminent extraordinary, but the acceptance of such interpretational awareness should bolster the argument for additional inclusiveness.
13.2.3 Expanding Diversity
Fordham psychologist, Ponterotto’s (2014: 379) definition of psychobiography leaves little room for variation: “Psychobiography represents a specialty area that applies psychological theories and research tools to the intensive study of an individual of historic significance.” Cilliers and Mayer (2019 115) maintain that psychobiography is “based on the analysis of extraordinary individuals by using psychological theories . . . to gain a holistic view of the individual’s life.” Burnell et al. (2019: 180) look for “the characteristics and traits that indicate generative and exemplary lives.”
To limit psychobiographic diversification by its solitary emphasis on a certain segment of society is counterproductive and discriminating, as is the assumption that motivational character strengths and attributes of the eminent extraordinary are any more formidable or psychologically relevant than those of the ordinary extraordinary. This recognition does not warrant precluding psychological research of the eminent extraordinary, but the awareness of counterproductivity and discrimination should bolster the argument for additional inclusiveness.
13.2.4 Peer Relationships.
Finally, evidence supports that the primary facilitator to character development is the peer relationships of the child/adolescent (Bandura 1985). “Peers are defined as belonging to the same societal group especially based on age, grade, or status” (Reitz et al. 2014: 6). Psychobiographical studies of the motivational character strengths and virtues of the eminent of a different stratosphere cannot hold the same comparative validity or relevance to those of the ordinary extraordinary.
13.3 Psychobiography
In recent years, researchers have recognized the importance of a more unified and cross-disciplinary approach to study character motivation (Braver et al. 2014). There is broad support for expanding the psychobiographic focus. Atwood and Stolorow (1993: 9) campaigned for the use of multiple perspectives, promoting “a psychobiographic method capable of flexibly drawing upon the knowledge of all the different schools of thought, and also of devising new concepts as it goes along.”
Runyan (1988: 320) concedes, “in further research, a number of other aspects of progress in psychobiography might be examined, such as progress in the range of persons studied.” Anderson and Dunlop (2019: 11) argue “Theory should open up, not close down; provide new questions, not easy answers; complicate, not simplify; produce possibilities, not reductions,” while the author (Mullen 2019: 4) adds “The [psychobiography] maintains its flexibility by drawing upon the knowledge of many schools of thought while devising new concepts as they become necessary for evaluation.”
Kőváry (2019: 739) acknowledges that “contemporary psychobiography is constantly widening its focus.” Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000: 8) call for “massive research on strengths and virtues.” British psychologist Howe’s (1997: 241) article on the synthesis of psychology and biography in psychobiography entertains the following:
The benefits recede and the limitations become pressing when the aim is to understand individuals, especially if they are at all extraordinary, and even more so when their very uniqueness is a primary reason for taking an interest in them.
Descriptors of personality studied in the normative sense, such as “traits, styles, types, motives, ideologies, attitudes, affective dispositions, and psychopathological categories” (Alexander 1988: 266), are relevant to the ordinary extraordinary as well as the eminent extraordinary. There are “a multitude of ways of measuring traits and attributes, and techniques for recording individual’s experiences, as well as various methods for analyzing qualitative data objectively” (Howe 1997: 240).
Perkins and Repper (2003) point to Peterson and Seligman’s (2004) six core virtues of character strengths to which every individual, ordinary or historically eminent, has access: wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence.
13.3.1 Purposes of the Psychobiography.
For psychologist McCarron (2017), psychobiography pursues “the salient themes of a life and the psycho-dynamics behind them in hopes of capturing the psychological ‘fingerprint’ of a person” (p. 1). Du Plessis and Stones (2019: 210) offer the rote psychobiographic motivation, “to understand the lives and personalities of exemplary individuals.” Howe (1997) sources eighteen distinguished psychobiographers who state psychobiography’s general purpose is to examine the growth of original thinking and creativity in individuals.
Many psychobiographers define its purpose as learning why a person thinks and behaves as she or he does (Anderson and Dunlop 2019; Howe 1997), or “to generate theoretical insight into, and understanding of, the individual” (Knight 2019: 134).
A coalescent vision might define the purpose of the psychobiography as (1) the study of the character strengths, virtues, and attributes that generate motivation, persistence, and perseverance towards achievement; and (2) to apply these understandings toward optimal functioning, and improving life satisfaction and the wellbeing of individuals, communities, and society as a whole.
13.4 Psychobiography, Positive Psychology, and Maslow
Mayer and May (2019: 165) inform “Over the past decade, the importance of positive psychology concepts has been emphasized in psychological research in general . . . but also recently in psychobiographical research.” The psychobiographic affiliation with positive psychology reinforces the justification to broaden the parameters of psychobiography to embrace the ordinary extraordinary. Positive psychology, according to Gable and Haidt (2005: 103), is the “study of the conditions and processes that contribute to the flourishing or optimal functioning of people, groups, and institutions.” Mayer and May (2019) cite Schultz (2005: 165) in calling for more “positive aspects in the psychobiographical perspectives on the life of individuals.” Sheldon and King (2001: 216) define positive psychology as “nothing more than the scientific study of ordinary human strengths and virtues,” one that “revisits the average person.”
13.4.1 Positive Psychology
In their study of positive psychology, Mukund and Singh (2015: 201) write, “Positive psychology theory and research has been applied across many domains, from education to health to neuroscience.” Positive psychology is a relatively new field (since 1998) that ostensibly complements rather than replaces traditional psychology. Common elements of positive psychology include savoring, mindfulness, “gratitude, kindness, and pursuing hope and meaning” (Chakhssi et al. 2018: 2). Schrank et al. (2014: 103) write: “positive psychology serves as an umbrella term to accommodate research investigating positive emotions and other positive aspects such as creativity, optimism, resilience, empathy, compassion, humour, and life satisfaction.”
Positive psychology’s ambition “to study, identify and amplify the strengths and capacities that individuals, families, and society need to thrive” (Carruthers and Hood 2004: 30) indeed welcomes any individual who has achieved. Psychology would benefit by including the “positive, adaptive, creative and emotionally fulfilling aspects” (Mukund and Singh 2015: 197) of the ordinary extraordinary.
Positive psychology is the science of optimal functioning. Cultural psychologist Levesque (2011) describes optimal functioning as the study of how ordinary individuals attempt to achieve their potentials and become the best that they can be. Like psychobiography, positive psychology researches the “experiences and positive character or virtues” (Mayer and May 2019: 160) that generate the motivation, persistence, and perseverance needed to cultivate the “potential for psychological well-being that lends itself to optimal functioning” (Carruthers and Hood 2004: 31). Optimal functioning is vital to sports, work, education, wellness, and everyday living. Like positive psychology’s attempts to understand human potential and Maslow’s hierarchy of natural human development, optimal functioning is a universal application.
13.4.2 Maslow
Extending the genealogy of positive psychology reaches the character developmental philosophy of Abraham Maslow. According to psychologist Nelson Goud (2008: 449), “the recent Positive Psychology movement focuses on themes addressed by Maslow over 50 years ago.” Cited as the tenth most influential psychologist of the 20th century (Haggbloom et al. 2002),
Maslow introduced positive psychology in Motivations and Personality (1954). Described as the ‘third force’ in psychology after behaviorism and psychoanalysis, his humanistic approach stressed the importance of focusing on ordinary individuals’ positive qualities (Mukund and Singh 2015; Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi 2000).
Fig. 1.1 Genesis of the psychobiography.
Maslow used the term metamotivation to describe self-actualized people who explore the parameters of their human potential. Self-actualization, “the full realization of one’s creative, intellectual, and social potential” (Selva, 2020b: 1), is the foundation of advanced human potential and a principal tenet of positive psychology (Mayer and May 2019). Self-actualization is achievable pending satisfaction of a hierarchy of physiological, cognitive, and other requisites of natural human development.
Maslow (1943: 92) describes this penultimate level as “the desire to accomplish everything that one can, to become the most that one can be,” the satisfaction of the need to know our role in the meaning of life. Selva, 2020a: 3) adds “Themes addressed by Maslow over 50 years ago . . . such as happiness, flow, courage, hope and optimism, responsibility, and civility” became central to the positive psychology movement.
The implicit foundation of humanism and positive psychology is balance, inclusion, and human ability, development, and potential. Any aspect of discrimination, prejudice, exclusionism, or preferential treatment assaults their integrity.
13.5 Adapting the Psychobiography to the ‘Ordinary’ Extraordinary
Adopting psychobiography’s multiple strategy approaches could provide better access to the complexities of the individual personality. These strategies have been developed for the eminent extraordinary; it is, therefore, important to evaluate how they can be utilized in the study of the ordinary extraordinary. We are concerned, here, with the case study, history, hermeneutics, data collection, and narrative of the subject.
Hermeneutic evidence of the ordinary extraordinary would, ostensibly, be easier to interpret from interviews than unavailable historical records as it requires”a degree of inter-subjective agreement and certainty that one has understood an expression accurately” (Polkinghorne 1983: 221). The narrative aspect of the psychobiography favors the ordinary extraordinary. According to Alexander (1988: 265), “the richest sources of data are those which deal with the spontaneous recollection from memory of various aspects of life already lived,” and no one is closer to a life already lived than the person living that life.
The narrative of an ordinary extraordinary might lack in spectacularism but not creativity. Every individual’s life is distinctive, consisting of unique experiences, beliefs, and sensibilities that help convey “the coherence and the meaning of lives” (McAdams 2001: 102).
Finally, a case-study is created through an in-depth psychological investigation to generate a reconstructive, clinical, and interpretive analysis of the subject “based upon the synthesis of all available evidence culled from all available sciences providing systematic analyses of information” (Erickson 2003: 40). The key is availability, be it historical, anecdotal, or in the next room.
The investigation methods utilized in psychobiography require modest adaptation to the ordinary extraordinary. More in-depth interpretation, inference, and speculation would compensate for any lacuna of known history and philosophical, ethical, and religious evolution found in studies of the full life of the eminent extraordinary.
Evaluation of the character strengths and virtues of the ordinary extraordinary would come from autobiography, academic and clinical records, and the subject’s personal associations. None of these falls outside the purview of the psychobiographic process. Data and evidence of ordinary individuals are already available in analysis and research. Statistical research is abundant; comparative or correlational evidence supports conclusions.
13.6 Conclusions
This paper addresses four issues with the psychobiographic approach which, for over a century, has focused on the character motivations of the extraordinary eminent who has achieved historical or social recognition. It argues that psychobiography limits its potential to study the character strengths that generate the character strengths, virtues, and attributes that generate motivation, persistence, and perseverance to achieve by restricting its concentration.
It contends that consideration of the character motivations of the ordinary extraordinary would significantly enhance psychological study. And it affiliates positive psychology and Maslowian humanism with contemporary psychobiography. And it provides evidence that researchers have an interest in broadening psychobiography’s vision.
Finally, this paper demonstrates that the psychobiographic approach is as relevant to the ordinary extraordinary as the eminent extraordinary. It is a fundamental principle that actions are motivated to achieve individual needs; it is psychology’s obligation to understand better the character strengths that generate and support that motivation by broadening the psychobiographic perspective.
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Upcoming: Social Anxiety Disorder: A Life Trajectory of Fear in Clio’s Psyche, Summer 2023
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