Part I. Positive Constructs and Their Role in Clinical Domains -- Chapter 1. Positive Psychology and Clinical Psychology: Common Philosophical Backgrounds, Early Contributors, and Future Integrations -- Chapter 2. Positive Human Health, Resilience and Their Psychosomatic Underpinnings -- Chapter 3. Positive Personality Traits and Positive Human Functioning -- Part II. The Promotion of Positivity in Clinical Practice -- Chapter 4. Positive Interventions and Their Effectiveness with Clinical Populations -- Chapter 5. Hope, Optimism, Goals and Passion -- Chapter 6. Life Adversities, Traumatic Events and Positive Reactions -- Chapter 7. Love, Empathy and Altruism and their Clinical Implications -- Chapter 8. Gratitude, Spirituality and Meaning: Their Clinical Implications -- Concluding Remarks, Future Perspectives and Author's Comments.

This book builds the bridge between the fields of clinical and positive psychology research and practice. It presents clinical interventions aimed at promoting positivity. Although clinical psychology has addressed issues such as happiness, resilience and optimal functioning, the field has stuck to the medical model and paid more attention to distress and negativity in human existence. Positive psychology, on the other hand, has devoted attention and resources to the investigation of positivity, without fully considering the complexities of human experience and the relationships with distress and psychopathology. This book integrates research and practice from both fields. Its first part provides a theoretical framework for describing concepts such as hedonic and eudaimonic well-being, resilience, character's strengths, positive health and positive functioning, with a special reference to their clinical implications. The second part provides a review of positive interventions in clinical practice and psychotherapeutic settings. These interventions are derived from positive psychology as well as from longstanding traditions in clinical psychology and psychiatry, and from eastern clinical and philosophical approaches.