Friendship Seminar

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:00 pm-1:29 pm

The course consists of weekly 90-minute lectures on Positive Psychology: The topics include Well-Being as a Life Goal, Good Character, Learned Helplessness, Optimism, Coaching, Therapy and Prevention, Positive Education, the Positive Corporation, Agency, and Artificial Intelligence. In addition, there will be weekly recitation sessions and exercises for students to measure and to increase their personal well-being.

Class Format: TUESDAYS: 90-minute lectures on Positive Psychology. THURSDAYS: Students meet in small groups (“recitation sessions”) to complete exercises that measure and increase their personal well-being.

Instructors: Martin Seligman, Frank Jackson

Mondays, 7:00 pm-9:59 pm

The phrase “failure to communicate” became iconic in American English from the 1967 film “Cool Hand Luke,” in which Paul Newman played a convict who refuses to listen or follow orders. The film raised questions about the multiple ways we understand “failure to communicate” and its consequences. Is it sometimes a decision to resist a presumption, a premise, an interpretation, an argument, a directive from authority? Is it at other times simply a mechanical failure? This course examines “failure to communicate” in multiple cultural areas, among them literature, romance, politics, show business, law, science, war, psychology, philosophy, business, religion, humor and education.