Some thoughts on "What Does “Positive” Mean?

Positive Psychology movement emerged out of challenging the existing way of thinking of a "disease" model in defining psychology as we used to understand. The basic premise was how to make normal life more fulfilling and flourishing. There are many offshoots of the this interesting field of study and lately the conventional psychologists have also been talking of more human interventions then the pharmaceutical industry driven "disease" model based drug interventions

Some people observe that word "positive" is overused and overrated. We have now new concepts like "Positive Organizational Behavior", "Positive Psychotherapy" and even "Positive Psychoanalysis". Are we over-using this word? Perhaps not. A friend asked a few days back if we can really define the word "Positive" in terms of psychology, without referring to an easy assess of dictionary/thesaurus. I don't remember being able to define at that moment. For me, positive refers to hoping for a good outcome, which would enhance overall happiness and well-being (and even perhaps create happiness in a much more sustained way). I guess rather than defining "Positive" we should look at the ethics part of it. Whether the practitioners are applying either existing models or new research-driven interventions vis-a-vis self-help positivity jargon is to be seen and evaluated by practitioners themselves and the people who take their services.