Mihály Cskszentmihályi, a renowned Hungarian psychologist, passed away on Wednesday at the age of 88. In the 1970s, he introduced flow theory, which he defined as a mental state achieved when one becomes fully absorbed in an activity and became widely recognized as one of the world’s top scholars on positive psychology.
In 1934, Csikszentmihalyi was born in what was then the Kingdom of Italy, in the city of Fiume (now Rijeka). In 1956, he left his home country and moved to America. A graduate of Lake Forest College’s faculty since 1959, he earned his degree from the University of Chicago.
He taught at the University of Chicago as a professor of human development from 1971 until 1987. He has been on the Encyclopaedia Britannica’s board of advisors since 1985. He taught psychology and business management at Claremont Graduate University from 1999 till his untimely passing in 2013.
In 1998, Csikszentmihalyi was accepted as a foreign member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA). For his work in the fields of developmental education, creativity, talent, and skills, as well as flow theory, he was given the Széchenyi Prize in 2011. He received the Grand Cross of the Civilian Order of Merit of Hungary in 2014. The Prima Primissima Prize was also awarded to him.
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Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Creator of ‘Flow,’ Passes Away at Age 87
Hungarian-American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi died on October 20 at his home in Claremont, California. He pioneered the concept of “flow,” which he used to demonstrate how anyone in every occupation, from artists to factory workers, can experience a state of heightened concentration and happiness. He was 87.
Chris Csikszentmihalyi, the psychologist’s son, said his father died of a heart attack.
Mike Csikszentmihalyi, Ph.D. (his full name is pronounced mee-HIGH CHEEK-sent-mee-HIGH-ee), was a polymath whose interests in art, chess, and rock climbing influenced his research on topics as disparate as the adolescent brain and the psychology of interior design.
But it was his study of concentration and originality that kicked off the field. He was also a graduate student at the University of Chicago, where he did the study that would become his best-known work and make him a household name after its publication in 1990: “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.”
Flow,’ New Ideas, Books, and Honors
Csikszentmihalyi is considered a founding father of positive psychology and is widely recognized for his research on the notion of “Flow,” which describes a condition of optimal experience in which one’s skills fit the demands of a circumstance.
His creative and ground-breaking use of pagers and questionnaires to compile a database based on people’s self-reports of everyday events formed the basis for most of this work. His 1990 best-seller, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, presented his findings from that database in a friendly, humanistic tone.
His later works, including Creativity (1996) and Good Business (2003), took his ideas into new areas. Csikszentmihalyi’s study focused more on positive feelings like enjoyment or creativity than many of his predecessors since his method provided a cross-section of daily experience.
The theoretical groundwork for his work with Seligman was laid out in that study. They collaborated in 2000 to introduce positive psychology to the field with an essay in American Psychologist, the APA’s flagship journal.
In recognition of his contributions, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences elected Csikszentmihalyi a Fellow, and he received the Clifton Strengths Prize in 2009 and the Széchenyi Prize in 2011. When Seligman was president of the American Psychological Association in 1998, he recalled asking Mike to collaborate on a ground-breaking journal article.
“Mike had played such an enormous role in helping me prepare my theme for the APA presidency,” he recalled, “that I prevailed on him to be the joint author of that article.”
In addition to other honors and awards, in 2014, he was given the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary. Csikszentmihalyi’s TED Talk, “Flow: The Secret to Happiness,” has been seen 6,693,254 times since it was initially published in 2004.
