Psychology Prof. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi receives one of Hungary’s highest state honors
Claremont Graduate University (CGU) psychology Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi received the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary from Hungarian government officials during an official state ceremony in Los Angeles on Dec. 6.
The award the second highest Hungarian state honor was bestowed upon Csikszentmihalyi for his pioneering research and teaching in the field of positive psychology which has transformed the world’s understanding of happiness motivation and well-being. The ceremony held against a backdrop of Hungarian and United States flags opened with the playing of the Hungarian national anthem and introductory remarks by Hungarian Consul General Laszlo Kalman. Zoltan Balog Hungary’s Minister of Human Capacities then presented the Grand Cross to Csikszentmihalyi on behalf of Hungarian President Janos Ader declaring that the award “honors the outstanding work of an outstanding man.” 
“By awarding the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary we acknowledge your outstanding meritorious activity in service to the nation — both American and Hungarian — by promoting the development and advancing the interests of country as well as augmenting universal human values ” Balog told the professor.
Csikszentmihalyi who is Hungarian by birth accepted the Grand Cross in front of an audience of family members colleagues and Hungarian diplomats. He claimed the award not for himself but on behalf of the people and ideas that laid the foundation for his work over hundreds and thousands of years.
“What I have tried to do is express these ideas these truths about the human condition in the language of western science ” he said. “Because if you don’t do this every few generations I think the knowledge and the wisdom ends up being forgotten.”
Csikszentmihalyi is Distinguished Professor of Psychology in CGU’s School of Social Science Policy and Evaluation and the director of the Quality of Life Research Center.
He is world famous for his work in the study of happiness and creativity but is best known as the architect of the notion of “flow” — a state of concentration or complete absorption with the activity at hand — and for his years of research and writing on the topic.
His father served as the Hungarian ambassador to Italy following World War II. He was stationed there until 1948 when the Soviet-backed Hungarian Workers Party seized full control of the government and recalled its foreign diplomats.
Csikszentmihalyi said his father did not wish to live under communist rule and refused to return. For this refusal the regime tried his father in absentia and sentenced him to death. The regime couldn’t enforce the sentence because the family was in Italy but it meant the family couldn’t go back home.
Csikszentmihalyi later moved to the United States where he began his academic pursuits in the field of psychology. He was unable to return to Hungary until 1989 when the Soviet grip on the Eastern Bloc began to slip and the country adopted a non-communist government.
Since then he has emerged as a national hero. In 2011 he received the Szechenyi Prize Hungary’s most prestigious science award from the Hungarian president. During that visit he met and dined with other top government officials.
Most recently in addition to honoring Csikszentmihalyi with the Grand Cross the Hungarian government presented him with a Hungarian passport reaffirming his citizenship.
“Use it in good health and come visit us as often as possible ” Balog told him.
Csikszentmihalyi’s books include the bestselling Flow Being Adolescent The Evolving Self and Creativity.
Csikszentmihalyi’s research and scholarship are at the core of Claremont Graduate University’s master’s and doctoral programs in the field of positive psychology.
Stewart Donaldson dean of the School of Social Science Policy and Evaluation credited Csikszentmihalyi with helping to make the programs among the best in the world.
“Mihaly has inspired so many graduate students and faculty around the world to contribute to the developing science of thriving and optimal human functioning commonly known as positive psychology ” Donaldson said. “We are proud to have him here at Claremont Graduate University.”