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Csikszentmihalyi’s Early Life

Csikszentmihalyi’s Career

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Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is a psychologist who created the concept of flow. He is particularly known for flow psychology and positive psychology.

Even without success, creative persons find joy in a job well done. Learning for its own sake is rewarding."—MIHALY CSIKSZENTMIHALYI FROM CREATIVITY: FLOW AND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF DISCOVERY & INVENTION, 1996.

Even without success, creative persons find joy in a job well done. Learning for its own sake is rewarding."

—MIHALY CSIKSZENTMIHALYI FROM CREATIVITY: FLOW AND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF DISCOVERY & INVENTION, 1996.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced me-HIGH chick-sent-me-HIGH-ee) was born in Fiume, Italy, now Rijeka, Croatia, on September 29, 1934. Growing up, he was fluent in Hungarian, Italian, and German. During World War II, he spent time in an Italian prison camp where he discovered chess. He found playing chess to be an excellent way to divert his attention away from what was happening around him, something he believes helped him fare better than many others.

You may be reminded of Victor Frankl’s theory of logotherapy, focused around motivation and our desire to find meaning, which he based in part on his experiences in a concentration camp.

At age 16, he traveled to Switzerland where he had the opportunity to listen toCarl Jungspeak. The experience had an influence on him. He later explained, “As a child in the war I’d seen something drastically wrong with how adults—the grown-ups I trusted—organized their thinking. I was trying to find a better system to order my life. Jung seemed to be trying to cope with some of the more positive aspects of human experience.”

Csikszentmihalyi is best-known for his theory offlow, which he outlined in his seminal 1990 bookFlow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. According to Csikszentmihalyi, people are happy when they are in a state of flow, atype of intrinsic motivationthat involves being fully focused on the situation or task.

He describes flow as “being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.”

If you’ve ever felt the hours melt away while playing a video game, doing a puzzle, or even studying, then you probably know exactly the kind of feeling he’s talking about. If you have the kind of job where you are able to regularly enter a flow state while completing necessary tasks, Csikszentmihalyi might argue that you’ve chosen the perfect career to keep you happy and engaged in your work.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s theory of flow has influenced people in a wide range of fields.

Csikszentmihalyi is a prolific writer, having published more than 120 articles and book chapters on a wide variety of topics in psychology. His research and writings on happiness and creativity have also played an important part of the growing interest positive psychology. Here are a select few:

SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Cooper, A. (1998).The Man Who Found the Flow.Shambhala Sun. http://www.shambhalasun.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1942.Encyclopedia of World Biography. (2006).Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Michigan: The Gale Group.Geirland, John (1996).Go With the Flow. Wired. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.09/czik_pr.htmlSobel, D. (1995). Interview: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.Omni 17(4), 73.

Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Cooper, A. (1998).The Man Who Found the Flow.Shambhala Sun. http://www.shambhalasun.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1942.Encyclopedia of World Biography. (2006).Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Michigan: The Gale Group.Geirland, John (1996).Go With the Flow. Wired. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.09/czik_pr.htmlSobel, D. (1995). Interview: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.Omni 17(4), 73.

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Cooper, A. (1998).The Man Who Found the Flow.Shambhala Sun. http://www.shambhalasun.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1942.Encyclopedia of World Biography. (2006).Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Michigan: The Gale Group.Geirland, John (1996).Go With the Flow. Wired. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.09/czik_pr.htmlSobel, D. (1995). Interview: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.Omni 17(4), 73.

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