Meaning Therapy
Dr. Paul Wong
How Do I Overcome Adversity?
.The most powerful force you can control is your own outlook on life. Therefore, you must equip yourself with the right attitude or mindset. As Kahlil Gibran has said, “Your living is determined not so much by what life brings you, as by the attitude you bring to...
You Can Turn Shame into Pride and Wellbeing through Meaning Therapy
Shame is a huge but ignored factor in wellbeing research. In an increasingly impersonal digital society, the problem with shame becomes even greater. A wide range of disorders and self-sabotaging behaviours, from addiction to aggression, can all be traced back to the...
Meaning Therapy and the Toronto Van Attack
President's Column for the Positive Living Newsletter (May 2018). Read the rest of the newsletter here. On May 6, I did a one-hour interview at the Fairchild TV Studio in Richmond Hill, Ontario, for their program Leisure Talk (大城小聚), which features special guests...
Meaning and Flourishing in Suffering (Overview) (Fo Guang University, Taiwan)
This presentation provides a new perspective on flourishing based on the second wave of positive psychology (PP 2.0) (Wong, 2011). It first emphasizes the importance of the contextual principle of well-being. More specifically, this principle posits that,...
Adler versus Frankl: Similarities and Differences (Taiwan Society of Adlerian Psychology, Taiwan)
Alfred Adler (1870-1937) Viktor Frankl (1905-1997) A Historical Overview After leaving Freud’s Society of Psychoanalysis as a young, 18-year-old medical student, Frankl joined Adler’s Society for Individual Psychology from 1923 to 1927. During these four years, he was...
Reflections on My Psychology Career: Where I Came From, and Where I Am Going (Autobiography, Ch. 21)
Dr. Paul T. P. Wong’s autobiography, A Lifelong Search for Meaning: Lessons on Virtue, Grit, and Faith, is published in weekly installments. Stay updated here. “I suffer, therefore, I rejoice.” This paradoxical statement sums up my entire academic career in...
Death Acceptance and the Meaning-Centered Approach to End-of-Life Care
Authors Co-authored with David F. Carreño, M.A. University of Almeria, Spain, and Beatriz Góngora Oliver, M.S., Torrecardenas Hospital, Almeria, Spain.The final examination that faces all of us is how to die well. Death anxiety, just like test anxiety,...
Paul T. P. Wong’s Contribution to Existential Therapy
Meaning therapy (MT; Wong, 2010, 2016) is also known as meaning-centered counseling and therapy (MCCT). It is based on Frankl’s logotherapy, but is extended to integrate with cognitive-behavioral therapy and positive psychotherapy. Thus, it is a pluralistic approach...
International Psychology and I: A Reflection
My birth and historical and cultural background as a Chinese combined with my higher education and academic career as a Canadian have destined me to be an international psychologist. Since my days as a graduate student, all that is within me has recoiled from...
How to Measure Existential Meaning
Note This is a manuscript review of the paper published as George, L. S., & Park, C. L. (2016). The Multidimensional Existential Meaning Scale: A tripartite approach to measuring meaning in life. The Journal of Positive Psychology. Advance online publication....
Five Perspectives on the Meaning of Meaning in the Context of Clinical Practices
Authors Joel Vos* and Mick Cooper, Dept. of Psychology, University of Roehampton, United KingdomClara E. Hill, Dept. of Psychology, University of Maryland, United StatesRobert A. Neimeyer, Dept. of Psychology, University of Memphis, United StatesKirk J. Schneider,...
The Deep-and-Wide Hypothesis in Giftedness and Creativity
Authors Co-authored with Piers Worth, Ph.D., Bucks New University, London, UK.Abstract This paper provides empirical findings from four different sources that lend credence to the deep-and-wide (DAW) hypothesis (Wong, 2012) in accounting for giftedness and creativity....