Reading: Happiness!

The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom-Why the meaningful life is closer then you think.

By Jonathon Haidt

When I returned from my travels, I was pretty bummed. Although in reality I was already pretty bummed before I left. Anyways, Peter, Miquila and I were hanging out one day and Miquila and I were being super grumpy. Peter, knowing that we are normally very chipper while he always remains a pretty even keel suggested that I read this book, so I did.

While I probably won't get to read a whole book in a week, and it has totally taken me wayyyy too long to read this book, but I will attempt to summarize with a light review at the end.

The book starts out with him explaining his premise for writing the book. He is a Jewish athiest Psychologist professor(notice which descriptor had top priority) who has recently become interested in Positive Psychology. Claiming that many ancient societies had found happiness within the tenets of their philosophies or religions, he uses them, as well as research studies to argue his point that the ancients had a lot of this right, and that happiness can be found by following these ten principles, or ideas. I will go into teach of them with a little detail.

1-The Divided Self-His essential point is similar to Freud's idea, that we have a conscience and a baser, more animal instinct(he cuts out the Superego), that he calls the rider and the elephant, respectively. Unlike with Freud, Haidt claims that the conscience cannot totally control the instinct, just like the rider of an elephant cannot really stop it, if it really wants to go somewhere.

2-Changing your mind-So in the second section he continues with the elephant/rider metaphor and explains that the elephant operates on very simple decisions. It decides whether it likes/dislikes something, whether it should approach/withdraw something, etc, based on how much fear or how much pleasure one can derive from the activity. It makes these decisions in a snap, and one "bad" situation can leave the elephant fearful of a similar situation forever, even if the rider can rationalize its safety. He then takes a bit to explain that essentially peoples happiness are set to some extent from the beginning of your life. Therefore, there are only three ways to change it: Mediation-quieting your mind, Cognitive behavioral therapy-retrain the "elephant", or druge-change the chemicals in the brain.

3-Reciprocity with a Vegence-This section asserts that language was created in humans simply to gossip, and regulate the social society. He says, without gossip, people would literally be able to get away with murder. Yet, because people always fear what someone else will say, the average persons behavior will stay relatively in check. He also asserts that the elephant responds to reciprocity and will often mimick, copy or give back what it got, whether it be good or bad.

4-The Faults of Others-He essentially states that people notice other peoples flaws, more then they would their own. This is because, the rider, realizing that it really has no say over the direction of the elephant, instead becomes a "lawyer" of sorts rationalizing the elephants actions to itself and others. He then showcases that alot of current religions use this myth of Pure Evil, to standardize faults in others, and he nudges us to look at Buddhism and other stoic religions to have us not judge quite so much!

5-The Pursuit of Happiness-He first explains that common perceptions of happiness such as achieving and winning do not account for long term happiness. He goes as far to say that both a lottery winner and an accident victim, whose lives have both changed completely, will fairly quickly become accustom to their new lives, whether very wealthy or broken, and happiness levels will come back down(or up) to the levels they are at before the event. He comes up with a happiness formula H=S + C= V. Your happiness is determined by your natural set point(from chapter 2), plus the conditions of your life(sex, race, age etc) and your voluntary activities. However, this can't truly be true however, if The Buddha is consulted. He would stress meditation, mindfulness and emotional unattachment, to ensure that no conditions, or circumstances will affect your happiness level. He looks at these opposing ideals of happiness, achievement vs. emotional non acctachment, and decides that passion and attachment is ok, as long as its balanced by staying in the present!

6-Love and Attachments-This section explains using case studies of babies and their mothers, that there are three types of people; those who are fairly well adjusted in relationships, those who are loners, and those who are too clingy. He obviously doesn't use these words, but that's the essential point. He is skeptical that this is caused all by nurture, as he thinks nature has a big part in it. He then essentially busts true passionate love, with a few charts showing that companion ate love, which may start low, will maintain through time, whereas passionate love will start off pretty strong but peter off, or get hot and cold.

7-The Uses of Adversity-Adversity according to him is not only good, but necessary to the growth of children. Those who experience little, or whose life circumstances don't allow for much adversity will not gain the wisdom needed to succeed later in life. However, he adds that adversity is relative and should occur based on how socially/physically ready one is, and at the right timing.

8-The Felicity of Virtue-Starting with an example by Benjamin Franklin, who charted his virtues, trying to be mindful of his transgressions, he asserts in this section that those who have morality or hold high to their virtues tend to be happier.

9.-Divinity With or Without G-d-In his last explanatory section, he maintains that a higher power, whether it be within or without, institution or drug induced, are essentially those moments that bring you to a higher place and make you feel like you are part of a grand design. He states that religious people often rate themselves as happier.