On May 10, 2022, Dr. Robert M. Bilder, UCLA Professor of Psychiatry presented “Positive Neuropsychology: A Dimensional Approach to Well-Being” as part of the Alan Hu Foundation Mental Health Lecture Series. Dr. Bilder explained, “Current theories of brain and behavior suggest there are not bright lines separating different psychiatric conditions or clear boundaries between health and illness. Instead, there are probably dimensions of brain function, upon which we all vary, and interactions among these dimensions of brain function determine how resilient we are when confronted with stressors. This presentation reviews current ideas about these dimensions and how they relate to the diagnostic groups identified in clinical psychiatry. It will then focus on how we can use strategies from positive psychology to enhance well-being and increase resilience to stress. Global application of these practices could reduce the incidence of common psychiatric “disorders” including anxiety, mood, and substance use syndromes by more than 50%.”
Dr. Robert Bilder is Tennenbaum Family Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology, Chief of Psychology at UCLA Health and Director of the Center for the Biology of Creativity. He is a board-certified clinical neuropsychologist and directs the UCLA Postdoctoral Fellowship Program in Neuropsychology. His research on brain and behavior aims to eliminate boundaries between mental health and illness, and between every day and exceptional creativity. His current grants examine reward mechanisms and have established a National Neuropsychology Network to gather “big data” about the brain. He recently completed the “Big C” project on exceptional creativity, and he now directs a National Endowment for the Arts Research Lab to measure the impact of the arts on well-being. Over the last decade he has been a leader within the Semel Healthy Campus Initiative. He is currently co-leader of the Mind Well Pod, which aims to enhance psychological well-being among UCLA students, staff, and faculty through both curricular and extracurricular programming. This work has led to a new UCLA minor in Brain and Behavioral Health, the annual UCLA Eudaimonia Award, and multiple other programs that support the Mindful Awareness Research Center, the Sleep Well initiative, and collaborations with Student Affairs to enable new development of applications that connect students to resources for mental health and well-being.
Mental Health Association for Chinese Communities (MHACC) https://www.mhacc-usa.org collaborated with Alan Hu Foundation to provide instant Chinese interpretation.
We were honored and privileged that Dr. Bilder shared the knowledge and experiences of his research on positive psychology. We were grateful to our audience for tuning in across United States as well as from Australia, Canada, China, Greece, HongKong, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and United Kingdom. Thank you, MHACC Founder and President Elaine Peng. Thank you, Ida Shaw, for simultaneous Chinese Interpretation.