Teach our students well: a call for training models that embrace the wisdom of the past

C.R. Snyder and T.R. Elliott's forward-looking clinical training model (this issue, pp. 1033-1054) assumes that traditional clinical theories, particularly psychoanalytic theories, have little to offer the study of human strengths. Yet the psychoanalytic literature reveals many insights into the nature of strengths and weaknesses. This essay describes a three-pronged habit of thinking that has led positive psychology advocates, including Snyder and Elliott, to underestimate the potential contribution of psychoanalytic models to our understanding of human strengths and to training models that stress their importance.