Today’s Google Doodle is celebrating Hungarian-American psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, on what would have been his 89th birthday.
Csíkszentmihályi is best known for his work on happiness and productivity, and for recognising and naming the concept of “flow”.
The animated Doodle pays tribute to this discovery by depicting Csíkszentmihályi in profile, with a burst of energy flowing from a brain through the letters of Google’s logo.
Who was Mihály Csíkszentmihályi?
Csíkszentmihályi was born on this day in 1934 in Fiume, now known as Rijeka in what is modern-day Croatia.
His family struggled financially as a result of the economic downturn caused by the Second World War, and so he was forced to drop out of school to help support them.
When he was 10 he experienced the death of his half-brother, who was killed in the Siege of Budapest in the Second World War, while the other half-brother was sent to labour camps in Siberia by the Soviets.
Witnessing such suffering at the hands of war at such a young age was a pivotal factor in Csíkszentmihályi deciding to dedicate his life to understanding the science of happiness.
He developed an interest in art, philosophy, and religion, which led him to attend a lecture by Carl Jung, who spoke about how Europeans traumatised by the Second World War projected UFO sightings into the sky. It was this lecture that convinced Csíkszentmihályi to study psychology.
At the age of 22 he moved to the United States to study psychology at the University of Chicago, and received his PhD in 1965. He went on to teach at Lake Forest College before returning to Chicago as a professor.
Csíkszentmihályi started examining what he came to call flow during his graduate studies, first becoming interested in the concept by watching painters at work.
His work on happiness and creativity is still widely read and credited to this day. Martin Seligman, former president of the American Psychological Association, once described him as the world’s leading researcher on positive psychology.
Over the course of his career he founded and co-directed the Quality of Life Research Centre, was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and earned several prestigious awards, including the Clifton Strengths Prize and the Széchenyi Prize.
Csikszentmihalyi married Isabella Selega in 1961 and they had two sons: Christopher Csíkszentmihályi, an artist and professor at Cornell University; and Mark Csikszentmihalyi, chair of the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Berkeley.
He died on 20 October 2021 at his California home, aged 87.
What is flow?
Csíkszentmihályi became interested in the concept when he observed painters who became so absorbed in their work they lost track of time, leading them to disregard basic survival cues for food, water, and sleep.
Several of his interview subjects described their experiences through the metaphor of a water current, from which Csíkszentmihályi coined the term “flow state”.
Flow is also known as being “in the zone” and is essentially a way to describe someone who is in a mental state in which they are fully absorbed in something, feeling totally focused and energised. This absorption transforms one’s sense of time and melds one’s action with consciousness.
It can be used as a method of productivity, as well as a coping mechanism for feelings like anxiety and stress.
Csíkszentmihályi’s book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience was published in 1990 and has since been translated into more than 20 languages. It is highly regarded by the likes of business leaders and sports coaches.
