In the June 2009 issue of The Atlantic is an interesting article entitled “What Makes us Happy” by Joshua Wolf Shenk. The article discusses a seventy-two year study by Harvard researchers, and it’s longtime director, George Vaillant, of the lives of 268 Harvard sophomores. The study intended to find a scientific “solution” or “equation” to a life of happiness.
After following these individuals for quarter century, the study had identified seven major factors that predict healthy aging, both physically and psychologically. These factors are education, a stable marriage, not smoking, not abusing alcohol, some exercise and maintaining a healthy weight. The seventh, and perhaps the most important of them all involve “mature adaptations“.
Given some of the challenges that I have faced over the past several years, this concept immediately resonated with me. Let me explain why.
About two years ago I read a book called “How Full is your Bucket?” where the premise of the book revolves around the metaphor of a “bucket” and “dipper”. Continuous positive contributions result in a”full” bucket while continuous negative energy (or the absence of positive emotion) eventually results in an “empty” bucket. The book goes on to provide several key strategies to ensure the “bucket” is always full.
One of the anecdotes in the text involves American POWs in the Korean War. Even though physical conditions were adequate, many POWs were mentally “broken” through self-criticism and lack of positive support. When I first read this, I found the concept difficult to comprehend. It’s only until recently where I can understand how a lack of positive energy can spell the difference between success and failure – regardless of situation.
At a certain level, one’s ability to get beyond the current circumstance and to mentally “fabricate” positive thought is a core factor to long-term success. In essence, how able is one to appropriately respond and adapt to challenges along the way? This “adaptation” concept is expanded upon in The Atlantic article:
“This central question is not how much or how little trouble these men met, but rather precisely how – and to what effect – they responded to that trouble. His main interpretive lens has been the psychoanalytic metaphor of “adaptations”, or unconscious responses to pain, conflict, or uncertainty. Formalized by Anna Freud on the basis of her father’s work, adaptations (also called “defense mechanisms”) are unconscious thoughts and behaviors that you could say either shape or distort – depending on whether you approve or disapprove – a person’s reality. Defenses can spell our redemption or ruin.“
In essence, one’s ability to successfully “adapt” is a key factor in one’s overall quality of life.
Vaillant goes on to rank these defenses in four categories (from worst to best):
- “Psychotic” – e.g. paranoia, hallucination
- “Immature” – e.g. passive aggression, projection, fantasy
- “Neurotic” – e.g. intellectualization, dissociation and repression
- “Mature” – e.g. altruism, humor, anticipation, suppression, sublimation
While “neurotic” defenses are common in “normal” people, the goal is to continuously strive towards the “mature” defense behaviors. Interestingly enough, these “mature” behaviors are in themselves “generators” of positive energy. While it is admirable to try to employ all of these sub-behaviors, it may be beneficial to focus on one or two initially.
For example, sublimation is good one to start with. The underlying concept behind sublimation is “energy flow”. Your mind creates energy (positive and negative) and this energy needs to be directed away from destructive acts and into something that is creatively acceptable. In fact, this blog is a good example of sublimation – channeling what could be negative energy into something that is constructive and creatively effective.
The lesson in all of this is awareness. While the six factors described earlier are relatively “easy” to attain for most, I believe focusing intently on the “defense mechanisms” or “adaptations” is at the core to ensuring a positive and healthy life experience regardless of the trouble encountered along the way. In the POW example described earlier, the key to survival was the single belief that things would eventually be better – the other factors didn’t really matter.
As important as these “adaptations” are, in an interview in the March 2008 newsletter to the Grant Study subjects, Vaillant was asked, “What have you learned from the Grant Study men?” Vaillant’s response: “That the only thing that matters in life are your relationships to other people.”