Today’s Google Doodle honours Mihály Csíkszentmihályi on his 89th birthday.He was Hungarian-American psychologist who is widely recognized for his groundbreaking contributions to the scientific study of pleasure and creativity.
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The term “flow,” coined by the renowned Csíkszentmihályi, describes the mental state of being fully immersed in a task. It is linked to both peak performance and well being, which are characterized by fulfillment, enjoyment, and attention.
Early life
Csíkszentmihályi was born on this day in 1934 in Italy, which was then a part of Imperial Italy. Due to World War II, he had financial troubles in his early years. The extreme suffering he witnessed while having to leave school to support his family during the war sparked his desire to understand the science of happiness.
His research took him into the fields of philosophy, theology, and the arts before he came upon a Carl Jung lecture. According to Jung, people in Europe projected their contacts with UFOs into the sky due to the psychic repercussions of the war trauma.
Education
He travelled to Chicago at age 22 to study psychology at the University of Chicago. While getting his degree, he saw painters lose track of time and ignore their basic requirements like food, water, and sleep. His interest in the topic intensified after this observation. Some artists compare this emotion to river flow, hence “flow state.”
He earned a positive developmental psychology PhD in 1965. In 1990, Csíkszentmihályi released “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience,” which has been translated into over 20 languages.
Csíkszentmihályi, a renowned psychology and management professor at Claremont Graduate University, co-founded and led the Quality of Life Research Center. The Clifton Strengths Prize and Széchenyi Prize were among his honors as an American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellow.
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