His goal was to provoke people into realizing that they could and should exercise their capacity for choice to achieve their own goals.

He joked that in contrast to Freud’s and Adler’s “depth psychology,” which emphasizes delving into an individual’s past and his or her unconscious instincts and desires, he practiced “height psychology,” which focuses on a person’s future and his or her conscious decisions and actions. His approach to psychotherapy stressed the importance of

Persons facing difficult choices may not fully appreciate how much their own attitude interferes with the decision they need to make or the action they need to take.

research in psychoneuroimmunology has supported the ways in which positive emotions, expectations, and attitudes enhance our immune system.

endure suffering and disappointment as well as enhance enjoyment and satisfaction. A negative attitude intensifies pain and deepens disappointments; it undermines and diminishes pleasure, happiness, and satisfaction; it may even lead to depression or physical illness.

it is a question of the attitude one takes toward life’s challenges and opportunities, both large and small. A positive attitude enables a person to

himself to a cause to serve or another person to love.”

To achieve personal meaning, he says, one must transcend subjective pleasures by doing something that “points, and is directed, to something, or someone, other than oneself … by giving

the values they have realized—and nothing and nobody can ever remove these assets from the past.