The happiness question

When I put the word ‘happiness’ in the open search box in Amazon.com there are 83,537 returns. When I use the books search box there are 26,409 returns. It is a popular concept!

Most of the books ride the bandwagon and simply shovel and rearrange the key ideas from a relatively small number of ‘experts’. Most of the experts are hard nosed and make sense rather than non-sense.

I have read several of the highly recommended authors who now come from an unexpectedly wide range of disciplines. In what follows I mention a few of the intriguing ideas that I have come across.

Gross National Happiness

The wealth of nations is measured by economists using the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). But this measures only brute economic conditions. In Bhutan they have given up on GDP and measure the Gross National Happiness (GNH) instead. It has four pillars:

• promotion of sustainable development,
• preservation and promotion of cultural values, 
• conservation of the natural environment, and
• establishment of good governance.

These are broken down further to include:

• physical, mental and spiritual health;
• time-balance; 
• social and community vitality; 
• cultural vitality; 
• education;
• living standards;
• good governance; and
• ecological vitality.

These are the components of wellbeing of the Bhutanese people, and the term ‘wellbeing’ refers to fulfilling the conditions of a ‘good life’ according to the values and principles laid down by the concept of Gross National Happiness.

Positive psychology

Abraham Maslow identified a hierarchy of needs. At the top was the need for self transcendence brought about by peak experiences. This led to a new and more positive approach in psychology. Not only making the subnormal normal but also making the normal supernormal.

“Positive psychology is a recent branch of psychology whose purpose was summed up in 1998 by Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi:

"We believe that a psychology of positive human functioning will arise, which achieves a scientific understanding and effective interventions to build thriving individuals, families, and communities."

Positive psychologists seek "to find and nurture genius and talent" and "to make normal life more fulfilling", rather than merely treating mental illness.

Positive psychology is primarily concerned with using the psychological theory, research and intervention techniques to understand the positive, adaptive, creative and emotionally fulfilling aspects of human behavior.” (Source: Wikipedia)

Csikszentmihalyi gave us the concept of ‘Flow’. Seligman gave us ‘Flourishing’.

Evolutionary Psychology

What is the adaptive purpose of being happy? Did it evolve and become represented in our genes and, if so, to what end? How does it ensure the survival of individuals or groups? Subjectively it feels good to be happy but how does that promote survival? While we were hunters and gatherers might it not have been more functional to be anxious and neurotic. Happy optimists let down their guard and become lion fodder? I do not remember reading about that topic.

No self

I am most happy, peaceful and content when ‘I’ am not present. This is when ‘I’ am in flow in the zone with the unconscious muse exhibiting non-action. ‘I’ am also ‘happy’ when just sitting in mindfulness and dropping off body and mind.

A few good reads

• Lama, Dalai   & Howard C Cutler (1998) The Art of Happiness  A Handbook for Living
• Csikszentmihalyi, Mihalyi (2002) Flow  The Classic work on how to achieve Happiness
• Haidt, Jonathan (2006) The Happiness Hypothesis  Putting Ancient Wisdom and Philosophy to the Test of Modern Science
• Hanson, Rick (2009) Buddha’s Brain  the practical neuroscience of happiness, love and wisdom
• Seligman, Martin (2011) Flourish  a new understanding of happinesss and well being
• Layard, Richard (2011) Happiness  Lessons from a New Science

 World Book of Happiness

A comprehensive and user friendly introduction to ongoing research into happiness is to be found in Leo Bormans (2012 ed) The World Book of Happiness.  He asked 100 experts in 50 countries to write 1000 words. There were four rules:

• He wanted insights founded on research-based knowledge not on spiritual philosophy
• Conclusions should not only concentrate on individual happiness but also on the happiness of groups, ecosystems, organizations and countries
• Conclusions should enable a cross-fertilization of ideas within a global vision for universal happiness
• The texts should be written in a language that ordinary people can understand

A link is noted between happiness, subjective well being, and life satisfaction. Contemporary research is mostly rooted in positive psychology. I used it as a dip-into book. It gives off a happy vibe.