Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi taught psychology at the University of Chicago for three decades and created the concept of the mental frame of mind known as flow, or a state of happiness when a person is performing at optimum level.
Csikszentmihalyi came up with the concept of flow in the 1970s, and awareness of his idea expanded dramatically with the publication of his bestselling 1990 book “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.”
Csikszentmihalyi sought to explain why so many people in diverse fields used a similar expression to describe the sensation for being totally involved in what they were doing and he concluded that for most people, the source of flow came from work, when actively involved in tasks that stretch their mental abilities.
“It’s probably the case that Mihaly will be most widely known for the concept of ‘flow,’ which was a brilliant idea, backed with excellent empirical methods,” said Howard Gardner, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. “But I hope that those who have heard about flow will go on to explore the great breadth of his work — studies of ‘good business,’ measures of good work in the professions, the importance of problem-finding in the arts, the preoccupations of teenagers, the limits of artificial intelligence, just to name a few.”
Csikszentmihalyi, 87, died of heart failure on Oct. 20 at his home in Claremont, California, said his son, Mark. He had lived in Claremont since 1999, and prior to that had been a longtime Hyde Park resident.
Csikszentmihalyi was born in Fiume, Italy, a community that after World War II became part of Yugoslavia and that today is known as Rijeka, Croatia. He was the son of a Hungarian diplomat father, and when World War II began, Csikszentmihalyi, his mother and his two sisters were shuttled between Italy and Hungary to avoid the fighting.
“In September 1944 we were in Budapest,” he told the Tribune in 1993. “The Russians were coming. They were already shelling the city. … Ours was the last train out of Budapest. The Russians blew up the bridge over the Danube just after we passed.”
Csikszentmihalyi and his family settled in Italy, where he attended high school in Rome. While on a ski vacation in Zurich at 17, he developed an interest in psychology while listening to a talk by renowned Swiss psychologist Carl Jung.
Csikszentmihalyi wanted to continue his education in the U.S. and in 1956 he arrived in Chicago, spending two years attending the University of Illinois’ Navy Pier campus while working nights as an accountant at a Loop hotel. He then transferred to the U. of C., where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1960.
Csikszentmihalyi completed his doctorate at the U. of C. in 1965 and taught at Lake Forest College before returning to Hyde Park as a psychology professor in 1969. He eventually chaired the department, but he preferred teaching and research and overseeing graduate students to administration.
“Mike, as we called him, was such a powerful positive influence on my thinking and those of his other students,” said University of Illinois psychology professor Reed Larson, for whom Csikszentmihalyi served as a graduate adviser and who co-authored a book with Csikszentmihalyi about the daily lives and experiences of teenagers.
Csikszentmihalyi’s research centered on people who get so immersed in their work they ignore food, water and sleep. Enough people described their experiences through a metaphor of a water current that he came up with the term “flow,” which he initially had called “optimal experience.”
Csikszentmihalyi interviewed creative professionals and concluded that they were happiest, most productive and most creative when in the state of flow. That concept helped form the foundation of the positive psychology movement, started by Csikszentmihalyi and another psychologist, Martin Seligman.
“Positive psychology was a needed corrective to psychology’s earlier focus on psychopathology, but (Csikszentmihalyi) patiently explained, hundreds of times, that it was not about ‘feeling good’ or ‘feeling happy” or getting a certificate, but rather about looking for meaningful experiences, which could sustain you and help others over the course of your life,” Gardner said.
Claremont Graduate University professor Jeanne Nakamura, a former graduate student who later worked closely with Csikszentmihalyi, said his research “was guided by enduring questions about human flourishing that he thought needed to be addressed, more than by the current concerns of the field.”
After retiring from the U. of C. in 1999, Csikszentmihalyi began work at Claremont Graduate University, where he taught and founded the university’s Quality of Life Research Center.
Larson called Csikszentmihalyi influential on a personal level, simply because of his perspective on work.
“According to the Protestant ethic, work was supposed to be so grueling and unpleasant that the only reward was in the afterlife,” Larson said. “Can you imagine how amazing it was to start an academic career with someone who had a theory and showed us how work — almost any kind of work — could be deeply enjoyable?”
Csikszentmihalyi also is survived by his wife of 60 years, Isabella; another son, Chris; and six grandchildren.
There were no services.
Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
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