Investigating positive thinking components in Sa’eb Tabrizi's sonnets based on Martin Seligman's positivist theory

Positive psychology is one of the newest trends in psychology, which by focusing on unique human talents, abilities and values, seeks to promote health and improve the quality of life, and by recognizing and classifying capabilities and virtues and discovering the hidden corners of human existence. it helps him in using the hidden forces inside and outside. Positive psychology includes concepts such as wisdom, love, kindness and altruism, happiness, tolerance, optimism, and hope and tries to consolidate and generalize them. Persian literature has always cultivated and presented such concepts. Sa’eb Tabrizi is one of the poets who also addressed these issues in his works. Based on this, the aim of this research is to investigate the components of positive psychology and their alignment in Saeb Tabrizi"s lyrical poetry with the aim of integrating modern psychological opinions with authentic psychological theories existing in Khodi culture.

This research was carried out with a descriptive-analytical method and presentation of a pie chart. In line with the purpose of the research, the six-volume sonnets of Saeb Tabrizi edited by Mohammad Qahraman (1985), scientific and cultural publications have been examined.

At the end of the review of Saeb"s sonnets and their descriptions and interpretations and the explanation of the components of positive psychology, the themes that are exactly consistent with these components were analyzed and it was determined between the concepts of Seligman"s positive psychology and these concepts in Saeb"s sonnets to a great extent. There is alignment. The frequency of these six virtues in his thoughts and words are: humanity (33 percent), excellence and spirituality (20 percent), justice (15 percent), courage (12 percent), wisdom and knowledge (10 percent), and moderation (10 percent).

Based on the findings of the present research, it can be concluded that what western thinkers have presented today under the title of positive psychology, can be seen in the literary works of Iran, including Saeb Tabrizi"s sonnets, with more attractive and beautiful evidence, which is with the coherence and daily use of The concepts of those poems can be used to benefit from its spiritual and psychological effects. In fact, the obtained results show that many modern knowledge whose roots are sought in the nascent civilization of the West, were present centuries ago in the treasure of Islamic-Iranian culture.