The aim of the article is to present the issue of social well-being and catastrophes in relation to the works of Pitirim A. Sorokin, the 20th-century American sociologist, political emigrant, one of the Presidents of the American Sociological Association, who contributed to the creation of the field, nowadays referred to as the sociology of positive actions or prosocial actions. The starting point is reflection on social well-being and happiness, cyclical social development with phases of crises and catastrophes. The law of positive and negative social polarisation is discussed as well as Sorokin’s proposal in promoting and strengthening the attitudes of creative altruism as a means of overcoming crisis situations. The theoretical reflection has been supplemented with the latest literature on the subject.