Skip to main content

The Happiness Hypothesis - A Book Review

 The Happiness Hypothesis: 

Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom

Why the Meaningful Life is Closer Than You Think  

 

By 

   Jonathan Haidt

Reviewed by

   Geoffrey W. Sutton

 

The Happiness Hypothesis is one of the best positive psychology books available in 2006 because Haidt integrates lessons from ancient sages with scientific evidence about a meaningful life.

Haidt begins by explaining two important systems in the mind as seen by ancient thinkers like the apostle Paul who considered the common problem of the battle between desires of the flesh and desires of the spirit. Haidt uses the metaphor of a rider atop an elephant to illustrate the difficulty in controlling the habitual ways of a large elephant charging through life with little cognitive awareness.

The second powerful idea is the time-honored truth that a happy or meaningful life often hangs upon the view people take toward life events. Our experience with people shows matches the evidence that people express different attitudes toward the same event such as a pessimistic or optimistic view.

The third idea is the importance principle of reciprocity in social relationships. It is a sort of social glue but we must beware of the ways people can manipulate us toward unhealthy choices.

Our inability to detect our own faults is the fourth point. It’s amazing how good we are in seeing other’s faults while being blind to our own, which can lead to impaired relationships.

Haidt parts with some ancient wisdom to explain how happiness is not just about an inner state of mind, but a relationship between our inner state and real-world action.

Love is his sixth idea. He examines different dimensions of love and finds philosophers give bad advice.

People respond to trauma in different ways. Haidt takes on Nietzsche’s quote, “What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.” Some people are resilient and grow as a result of hardship, but some end up with PTSD. There is a difference.

Chapter eight deals with the corruption of the rich ideas behind the classic virtues and considers morality in a diverse society.

His ninth idea deals with spirituality. Haidt explains the importance of the psychology of disgust to appreciating the human tendency to rise above life’s unpleasantness and appreciate the awe of the sacred.

Finally, Haidt considers the interactive relationship between one person and others in formulating the happiness hypothesis. There are many ways people may have a happy and meaningful life.

I recommend the Happiness Hypothesis to anyone who wants to appreciate the way in which psychological scientists have examined support for ancient wisdom drawn from philosophers and religious leaders for thousands of years. His book, The Righteous Mind is a follow-up to the Happiness Hypothesis with a focus on understanding the moral divide between conservatives and liberals found in many societies.

If you are interested in more in-depth, but highly readable, findings on our divided thinking, read Kahneman’s book, Thinking, Fast and Slow.

Cite this review

Sutton, G. (2021, June 30) The happiness hypothesis-A book review. SuttonReviews. Retrieved from 

Book reference

Haidt, J. The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom: Why the Meaningful Life is Closer Than You Think. 

Related Book

Living Well: 10 Big Ideas of faith and a meaningful life.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Denial of Death and the Meaningful Life- Book Review

  The Denial of Death   by Ernest Becker A Review by Geoffrey W. Sutton The prospect of death, Dr. Johnson said, wonderfully concentrates the mind. The main thesis of this book is that it does much more than that: the idea of death, the fear of it, haunts the human animal like nothing else; it is a mainspring of human activity—activity designed largely to avoid the fatality of death, to overcome it by denying in some way that it is the final destiny for man.  — Ernest Becker, xvii I completed a recent reading of this old classic yesterday (13 December, 2015) because I was interested in Becker’s contribution to Terror Management Theory, which I find so helpful in understanding the ways U.S. leaders are publicly responding to terrorist activities. Becker’s ideas are more than forty years old and many have not withstood the test of time. However, his basic premise that we deny the reality of death in many ways remains valid

A Christmas Carol offers lessons in Psychology and Faith A Book Review

A Christmas Carol By Charles Dickens A Review by Geoffrey W. Sutton My copy of A Christmas Carol was a gift on Christmas day, 1963. Two Christmases before I had walked the cold, fog-laden, smog drenched streets of Old London with my dad whilst my mother visited with her family. It was a grey day and a grey week. We took turns warming parts of our body by fireplaces here and there. After five years in the U.S. we had returned home to London on the occasion of my maternal grandmother’s death.  Dickens’ story paints a familiar tale textured by my early memories and enriched today by having watched my favourite rendition of A Christmas Carol ( 1984 ) with my wife on Christmas eve. My interest in reviewing the book is not just for a pleasant walk about the old streets of London but I'm motivated by a sense of appreciation for the poetic and colourful artistry with which Dickens plumbs the hopes and fears of humanity. So, follow

WILLPOWER Setting & Reaching Goals- Book Review by Sutton

WILLPOWER Rediscovering the Greatest    Human Strength By Roy Baumeister & John Tierney Reviewed by Geoffrey W. Sutton I go to a gym, which is crowded in January. Regulars know the early Happy-New-Year commitments to fitness will weaken sometime in February. Roy Baumeister has spent a good part of his career studying self-control. His book, Willpower   written with Tierney,  entertains and informs us with an organized set of findings explaining factors that influence self-control. Two critical factors weaken our judgments: food and sleep. We need glucose and sleep to be at our best when it comes to making wise decisions and marking progress toward our goals. A pretty woman can loosen a man’s grip on his career--we hear these news stories from time to time as one political group takes aim at each other's leaders--men who failed at sexual self-control and sadly blame women for their lack of self-control. Fat shaming happens. T