Positive psychotherapy
Positive psychotherapy (PPT after Peseschkian, since 1977) is a psychotherapeutic method developed by psychiatrist Nossrat Peseschkian and co-workers in Germany beginning in 1968. It can be described as a humanistic psychodynamic psychotherapy, which is based on a positive conception of human nature. The focus of positive psychotherapy is to enhance the positive emotion and engagement of patients rather than targeting the depressive symptoms PPT is an integrative method which includes humanistic, systemic, psychodynamic and CBT-elements. Today there are centers and trainings in some twenty countries worldwide. It should not be confused with positive psychology. Beginnings. The  founder of positive psychotherapy, Nossrat Peseschkian (1933–2010), was an Iranian-born German certified psychiatrist, neurologist and psychotherapist. He was inspired in the late 1960s and early 1970s by different sources, persons and developments: The term "positive". The method was called "differentiational analysis" until 1977. In 1977, Nossrat Peseschkian published his work "Positive Psychotherapie", which was published in English as "Positive Psychotherapy" in 1987. The term "positive" is derived from the original Latin expression "positum or positivus" which means the actual, the real, the concrete. The aim of positive psychotherapy and positive psychotherapists is to help the patient and client to  see also their abilities, strengths, resources and potentials. Main principles. The three main principles or pillars of positive psychotherapy are: 1. The Principle of Hope implies that the therapist wants to assist patients to understand and see the meaning and purpose of their disorder or conflict. Accordingly, the disorder will be reinterpreted in a "positive" way (positive interpretations): Some examples: Through this positive view, a change of standpoint becomes possible, not only for the patient, but also for his environment. Hence, illnesses have a symbolic function which has to be recognized by both therapist and patient. The patient learns that  the symptoms and complaints of the illness are signals to bring his or her four qualities of life into new balance. 2. Principle of Balance: Despite social and cultural differences and the uniqueness of every human being, it can be observed that during the management of their problems that all humans refer to typical forms of coping. Thomas Kornbichler explains: "Nossrat Peseschkian formulated with the Balance Model of Positive Psychotherapy (an innovative contemporary approach to dynamic psychotherapy) a vivid model of coping with conflicts in different cultures." According to the balance model, the four areas of life are: 1. body /health – psychosomatic; 2. achievement/work – stress factors; 3. contact/relationships – depression; 4. future/purpose/meaning of life – fears and phobia. Though these four ranges are inherent in all humans, in the western hemisphere the emphasis is more often on the areas of body/senses and profession/achievement in contrast to the eastern hemisphere where the areas are contact, fantasy and future (cross-cultural aspect of positive psychotherapy). Lack of contact and imagination are some of the causes of many psychosomatic diseases. Everyone develops his or her own preferences on how to cope with conflicts that occur. Through a one-sided  mode to the conflict solution, the other modes become eclipsed. The conflict contents (e.g. punctuality, orderliness, politeness, trust, time, patience) are described in terms of primary and secondary capacities, based on the basic capacities of loving and knowing. This can be seen as a content-wise differentiation of Freud's classical model of the instances. 3. Principle of Consultation: Five-stages of therapy and self-help. The five stages of positive psychotherapy represent a concept in which therapy and self-help are closely interrelated. The patient and the family are informed together about the illness and the individual solution to  it. Development and international network. The main emphasis of positive psychotherapy during the past 40 years has been treatment, training and publication.