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A proposal to classify happiness as a psychiatric disorder (1992)

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Re: A proposal to classify happiness as a psychiatric disorder (1992)

#91

Post by Henchman21 »

bensyverson wrote: post #19

Ha, this is fun. But there's a kernel of truth to it. The problem with American culture specifically is that it treats "happiness" as a goal, rather than a fleeting feeling that is probably better described with a more specific word (joy, accomplishment, excitement, satisfaction, contentment). Our culture leans on this so hard that people start to think there's something wrong with them if they're not feeling general…

This reminds me so very much of that old American greeting: "Hey! How are you?" and then you don't give a shit about the actual answer, which must always be positive.

Having to explain to young children that people do this simply to say hello, that they aren't actually asking you your health or state, or anything really. Falls right in line with our need to smile ALL THE TIME.

I stand by statements made by my European friends: Americans are mostly full of shit, mostly liars, and ALWAYS are trying to sell you something.

Are we the Baddies? Yes, of fucking course we are.

Re: A proposal to classify happiness as a psychiatric disorder (1992)

#92

Post by tollenda »

joshmarlow wrote: post #44
throw0101d wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My takeaway is that (presuming the argument is correct) that much of human striving is probably better described with specific words (as you suggested - joy, accomplishment, fulfillment, excitement, etc). All those four words combined is something like the concept of eudaimonia that Aristotle describes in his Nicomachean Ethics : * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eudaimonia * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flourishing

I've not read Aristotle directly but translating eudaimonia was an example in the book that I mentioned. The argument was that eudaimonia is often translated as happiness but that doesn't make sense in contexts where we talk about a soldier dying experiencing eudaimonia (suggesting a loose translation).

[dead]

Re: A proposal to classify happiness as a psychiatric disorder (1992)

#93

Post by jollyllama »

bensyverson wrote: post #19

Ha, this is fun. But there's a kernel of truth to it. The problem with American culture specifically is that it treats "happiness" as a goal, rather than a fleeting feeling that is probably better described with a more specific word (joy, accomplishment, excitement, satisfaction, contentment). Our culture leans on this so hard that people start to think there's something wrong with them if they're not feeling general…

> The problem with American culture specifically is that it treats "happiness" as a goal, rather than a fleeting feeling that is probably better described with a more specific word (joy, accomplishment, excitement, satisfaction, contentment).

Does it really? The sentiment of your post is pretty widespread at this point. It's kind of like saying "our culture is so commercialized" but everyone will tell you they're sick of commercialism.

Re: A proposal to classify happiness as a psychiatric disorder (1992)

#95

Post by ranger_danger »

NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #51
adyashakti wrote: post #9

it's Catch-22. the world is such a mess that if you're happy, you must be delusional.

I'm not the world, I just live in it. It might be a mess, but that mess mostly doesn't affect me. The few ways in which it does can be effectively mitigated by anyone who puts in even the tiniest bit of effort. For that matter, nothing much stops me from carving out my own little world where I can clean up what mess it is, and live there. But to do that I'd have to admit to myself that I can't change the greater worl…

> But to do that I'd have to admit to myself that I can't change the greater world

Do you though? Can't we believe that change is possible, but also choose not to act on it? Not saying that's right or wrong, just that it's possible.

Re: A proposal to classify happiness as a psychiatric disorder (1992)

#96

Post by joshmarlow »

dotancohen wrote: post #90
joshmarlow wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few years ago I read a claim that the word 'happy' is relatively young - ~500 years old - and that translations of others words into 'happy' are somewhat approximate. My takeaway is that (presuming the argument is correct) that much of human striving is probably better described with specific words (as you suggested - joy, accomplishment, fulfillment, excitement, etc). For most of human history, most people probabl…

The word שמחה and conjugations appear in the Bible about 200 times, so we have a good idea of what it means in context. It means exactly what I perceive the noun Happiness and the adjective Happy to mean in English.

That's very interesting and is good evidence against the thesis - thanks for sharing!

Re: A proposal to classify happiness as a psychiatric disorder (1992)

#97

Post by effed3 »

After ROTFL, and checking is not 1st april, seems in the same line of: "life is a disease, sexually transmitted, with 100% lethal exitus".

More seriously (very little indeed) maybe the 'problem' is all those activities that need to create more and more new problems/disorders to justify all the work uppon, so what if psychiatry is a psychiatric disorder? regressum ad infinitum, take the red pill.

About happiness, Buddha, asked about the way to happines, say: happiness is not the destination, is the way.

Re: A proposal to classify happiness as a psychiatric disorder (1992)

#98

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

letharion wrote: post #7

I'm assuming this is some kind of jab at the general propensity of psychiatry to classify most things as disorders, rather than a serious proposal. If anything, I think the problem has gotten worse since this was published. (Then again, maybe happiness has also gotten more rare since 1992?)

We went from 3% on anti-depressants in 1992 to 13%. Lots more are trying to induce happiness without an external change of circumstance or internal perspective.

Re: A proposal to classify happiness as a psychiatric disorder (1992)

#99

Post by Fire-Dragon-DoL »

bensyverson wrote: post #19

Ha, this is fun. But there's a kernel of truth to it. The problem with American culture specifically is that it treats "happiness" as a goal, rather than a fleeting feeling that is probably better described with a more specific word (joy, accomplishment, excitement, satisfaction, contentment). Our culture leans on this so hard that people start to think there's something wrong with them if they're not feeling general…

Interesting, I interpret happiness as that background feeling of overall satisfaction with my life, with ups and downs but the happiness is a constant.

Re: A proposal to classify happiness as a psychiatric disorder (1992)

#100

Post by fwipsy »

cortesoft wrote: post #70
fwipsy wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect you would agree with this: https://theoatmeal.com/comics/unhappy Even if feelings are temporary you can still have them more or less often. When somebody says they are happy, of course it does not mean they are experiencing bliss all the time; it means that the relative frequency of positive emotions is high and the relative frequency of negative emotions is low. I think a lot of people assume it's not poss…

I have often felt conflicted about happiness and what we should strive for in our lives. It is true that most people seem to think happiness is the ultimate goal for life. They say they just want to be happy, that they just want their kids to be happy. Often times, though, it seems almost circular in logic; any time you pushback against the idea of happiness or why being happy all the time isn’t always good, people w…

Happiness doesn't have to be the only goal to be worthwhile. Of course people don't want to live in fake bliss. Happiness is a vague term for many specific emotions; the sense of satisfaction from overcoming a difficult challenge is a form of happiness, or contributes to happiness.
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