Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, world renowned psychologist, died Wednesday, October 20, 2021 at the age of 88.

Born in Hungary in 1934, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi emigrated to the United States in 1956, graduated from the University of Chicago in 1959, and started his teaching career at Lake Forest College.

According to Hungary Today:

From 1971 to 1987 he was professor of human development at the University of Chicago. From 1985, he was a member of the advisory board of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. From 1999 until his death he was professor of psychology and management at Claremont Graduate University.

Hungary Today

How Do You Pronounce That Name?

Let’s get this out of the way, you pronounce his name like this: Me High. Cheek Sent Me High. Like this:

Flow Theory

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is best known as the Father Of Flow Theory. Flow is a state where you fell lost in time; challenged, but up to the challenge; in the zone. This is a state experienced by athletes, artists, surgeons, welders, gardeners–all most all humans at some time or another. Including children when they are lost in Real Play. In 1990, he described Flow as:

“A state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience is so enjoyable that people will continue to do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.”

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s research led him to identify 8 elements of flow:

• Complete concentration on the task
• Clarity of goals and reward in mind and immediate feedback
• Transformation of time (speeding up/slowing down of time)
• The experience is intrinsically rewarding, focus is on the process
• Effortlessness and ease
• A balance between challenge and skills
• Actions and awareness merge, losing self-conscious rumination
• There is a feeling of control over the task

Here’s a video ( under 5 minutes) that does a good job explaining Flow Theory:

More About Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

He lived a long and interesting life. Here’s an extended quote that’ll shed some light on him and his research:

From his own adverse experiences as a prisoner during World War II and from witnessing the pain and suffering from many people around him during this time, he developed a curiosity about happiness and being content with life.

He observed how many people were unable to live a life of contentment after their jobs, homes, security, etc, were taken from them during the war. After the war he read philosophy and took an interest in art and religion as a means to seek an answer to the question, what creates a life worth living?

Eventually he stumbled upon psychology whilst at a ski resort in Switzerland. He attended a lecture by Carl Jung, who talked about the traumatized psyches of the European people after World War II. He was so intrigued that he started to read Jung’s work, and eventually took an interest in psychology. Which in turn led him to the United States to pursue psychology. What he really wanted was to study the roots of happiness.

His studies led him to conclude that happiness is an internal state of being, not an external one. His popular book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience is based on the premise that happiness levels can be shifted through the introduction of more flow.

Happiness is not a rigid state that can’t be changed. On the contrary, happiness takes a committed effort to be manifested. After the baseline set point, there is a percentage of happiness that every individual has the responsibility to take control of. He believes that flow is crucial to creating genuine happiness.

Through much research he began to understand that people were most creative, productive, and often, happiest when they are in this state of flow. He interviewed athletes, musicians, artists, etc. because he wanted to know when they experienced the most optimal performance levels.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi was also interested in finding out how they felt during these experiences. He developed the term flow state because many of the people he interviewed described their optimal states of performance as instances when their work simply flowed out of them without much effort.

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Books By Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Here are links to three of the books written by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi if you want to read more. They are all great reads. I think Finding Flow is the most engaging read and recommend it as a starting place. Click the Playvolution HQ affiliate links in the caption to view the books at Amazon.

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