Positive Psychology’s Existential Crisis

Abstract

Positive psychology is facing an existential crisis. An overemphasis on examining positive character traits, strengths, institutions, and communities at the exclusion of existential realities highlights some of the limits of current approaches in the field. In order to thrive, scholars should consider broadening their purview to include the limits of the human condition and boundedness of our nature. Specifically, I argue that a complete account of the human condition should address the existential realities and suffering that create adversity and the myriad ways people make meaning and experience growth.