Many volumes have been written in recent years about the subject of happiness. Certainly this is nothing new as philosophers and poets from Aristotle to Shakespeare have hypothesized about happiness, it’s role, and how to find it. Recent years have brought this debate on happiness to fever pitch. According to the Pew Research Center, 85% of Americans claim they are happy, yet clinical depression remains a serious problem in our country, affecting 10-14 million people each year (NAMI). Much of the literature presupposes that happiness is possible for all and can be generated if only the right steps are followed. But, is this talk of happiness all it is cracked up to be?

In “Against Happiness”, Eric G. Wilson takes on the Western ideal of happiness and defends the benefits of moderate melancholia. He argues that if we continue our quest to eliminate sadness through positive thinking, consumer bliss, and drugs, that we will eliminate the valuable role that melancholia plays in creativity and social change. Wilson writes, “Soon, perhaps with the help of psychopharmaceuticals, we shall have no more unhappy people in our country. Melancholics will become unknown. This would be an unparalleled tragedy……. With no more melancholics, we would live in a world in which everyone simply accepted the status quo, in which everyone would simply be content with what is given.” Wilson seems to argue against synthesized happiness, at least at the expense of an honest assessment of the world. Yet perhaps our ability to make ourselves happy is a powerful and necessary tool for shaping our world.

Dan Gilbert, Harvard researcher and author of “Stumbling on Happiness,” sheds some interesting light on this topic with his theory of the “psychological immune system.” In his 2004 TED talk , Gilbert reveals the findings from his research which indicates that humans have the keen ability to create happiness to some degree. The human mind demonstrates the ability to manipulate the way we feel about certain events. Further, Gilbert found that the less freedom a person has, the more likely they are to synthesize happiness as opposed a person with a great deal of choice. Thus, prisoners or survivors of tragic events often tend to report greater contentment after the fact than those without such negative stimuli.

It may be helpful here to consider the work of Laura Carstensen, of the Standford Center for Longevity. She has discovered that the elderly tend to give selective attention to positive images more frequently than do younger people. Carstensen suggests this may explain why older people are less likely to be depressed and report less stress in day to day life. I would suggest that this finding connects with Gilbert’s study because aging can be expressed in terms of a limited amount of choice and freedom as compared to younger ages. Something about situations which are beyond our control leads us to synthesize a more positive view of our lives as opposed to have a great deal of freedom and choice.

Perhaps this is why Wilson is adamantly opposed to the happiness-happy American culture. He draws our roots to Benjamin Franklin, whose capitalistic aspirations fueled the founding of our nation. Interestingly, Wilson points out that the “life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness” of America’s Declaration of Independence derive from John Locke’s, “life, liberty, and property.” From an early age, the American dream has been about owning stuff (and having liberty through this ownership), and this stuff being a major source of our happiness.

Yet we know it does not work that way. Studies have shown that increased wealth beyond certain limits does not increase happiness. Yet American culture seems to perpetuate this myth of wealth and beauty and success at the exclusion of an honest look at our failures, sadness, and weaknesses. It is our very freedom which allows us to distance ourselves from poverty, genocide, and unrest, yet this freedom, as we have seen, may actually limit our ability to find happiness. As Wilson writes, “The greatest tragedy is to live without tragedy.”

Wilson also interjects a spiritual point. He reclaims the image of Jesus as the “man of sorrows,” in contrast to the “Buddy Jesus” presented in many modern expressions of Christianity. Wilson writes, “Why Americans tend to imagine Jesus as some sort of blissed-out savior, untroubled because divine is beyond me. If we look closely at the four Gospels, we notice not a jovial minister, but a tortured prophet, a man who realized from early on that the only way to gain salvation is to enter the deepest shadows.” Perhaps this remade vision of Jesus has contributed to a culture of people who avoid sorrow at all costs.

The struggle in this discussion is defining true happiness. Self-reports of happiness are difficult to evaluate. I agree with Wilson that the American dream version of happiness as health, wealth, and prosperity is filled with holes and dangerous for the long-term benefit of our world. However, I would argue that there is another type of happiness which leads individuals and communities into abundant and sustainable lives, not in denial of the hard realities of life, but embracing them and moving beyond them. Further, it is my belief that we can discover ancient wisdom and modern empirical evidence which will provide a path towards increased, genuine happiness for all.

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