Self-Esteem Research, Theory, and Practice Toward a Positive ...

248 SELF-ESTEEM RESEARCH, THEORY, AND PRACTICESelf-Esteem and Positive TherapyIn discussing positive therapy, Linley and Joseph start out with a positionthat may seem surprisingly friendly to humanistic psychology given thehistory of controversy between these two approaches that we reviewedearlier in this chapter.It is not our intention to advocate new ways of working therapeutically,but rather to ask what it is to work therapeutically within a positivepsychology framework. Can some therapies be considered positivetherapies? Our answer to this is yes. In particular, those therapies basedon the theoretical premise of an organismic valuing process and anactualizing tendency appear to be most consistent with what the positivepsychology research is now telling us. (2004, p. 354)On deeper reflection, however, there are several good reasons thatthis position is found in the more clinical literature of the new positivepsychology. Where researchers, theoreticians, and academicians are relativelyfree to debate subtle distinctions concerning such things as the originsand relative superiority of various concepts, theories, or positions,clinicians are not: They must be more concerned with what helps, regardlessof such nuances. Thus, programs that reduce human suffering andincrease the ability to handle life’s challenges by helping people throughself-awareness and authentic action are welcomed additions to the therapeuticarsenal by practitioners, no matter what their particular theoreticalfoundations may be. When seen in this light, it is possible to arguethat the self-esteem program offered in Chapter 6 may also stand as a“positive therapy,” thereby showing an applied connection between selfesteemand positivistic positive psychology.One way to evaluate the compatibility of this program with the newpositive psychology is to compare it with existing positive therapies.Fava’s “well-being therapy” (WBT) has been cited as a primary exampleof positive therapy in two of the major source books on positive psychology(Linley & Joseph, 2004; Snyder & Lopez, 2002), so it may beused to offer some guidelines as to what constitutes such an approach.This form of therapy was originally designed to deal with the problem ofrelapse that is a major issue in the treatment of affective disorders (Fava,1999). The approach is based on the finding that “psychological wellbeingcould not be equated with the absence of symptomology, nor withpersonality traits” (Ruini & Fava, 2004, p. 371). Instead, psychologicalwell-being is associated with the development of human potential, whichboth humanistic and positivistic psychologists would call self-actualization,even if one only has brief episodes of it. Historically, of course, well-beinghas not been the focus of treatment, particularly in modern psychiatry