In Search of Happiness Understanding an Endangered State of Mind

by Schumaker, John F.

• ISBN13: 9780143020165
• ISBN10: 0143020161
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-12-27
• Publisher: Penguin Global

Summary

Happiness has become a global obsession, a commodity and an unquestioned goal for many. From the promises made by the consumer culture that material things will make you happy, to the mass ingestion of happy pills such as Prozac and Ecstasy, to the largely unquestioned link between success in business and true happiness - what is happiness, actually? And has it always meant the same thing it appears to mean today? This highly readable book examines how people have come to expect happiness and to experience 'happiness anxiety' when they doubt their current levels of happiness, and the solutions they seek to achieve this mysterious human condition. It offers an alternative view to the prevailing consumer-based definition of happiness and examines whether the quest for happiness as it is understood now is perhaps a fruitless one that leads only to further unhappiness.

Table of Contents

Dying to be happy	p. 11
What is it?	p. 23
Happiness by design	p. 41
Prehistoric happiness	p. 55
The fall	p. 75
The golden cage	p. 91
The new trinity	p. 107
Happiness for dummies	p. 119
The happiness conspiracy	p. 137
In greed we trust	p. 151
The paradox of narcissism	p. 167
Lost in the mirror	p. 181
The failure of success	p. 195
Killing the things we love	p. 213
Happy societies	p. 225
Mountains of happiness	p. 249
Oceans of happiness	p. 261
The future of happiness	p. 269
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.