Click Here to Read: The Idea of Happiness By Ashis Nandy in the Economic and Political Weekly on January 14, 2012.
Jonathan House sends us this thoughtful discourse on the Happiness Industry, written by Ashis Nandy, a social theorist. He is skeptical about our “clenched teeth pursuit of happiness.” His conclusion hews closer to Freud’s more somber (or sober) view of life. Nandy starts with three surveys of the happiest countries: in 2010, the winners were Nigeria or Vanautu (different surveys). 2009’s winner? Bangladesh. (Need to get a different statistician?) Bhutan’s GHI, Gross Happiness Index, wasn’t mentioned.
Another intriguing (psychoanalytic) note: Nandy says that in India, reading the Ramayan results in different outcomes depending on one’s caste: the highest castes (Brahmin, , Kshatriya) get knowledge or fame/glory respectively. The lower castes — vishyas (tradesmen) and shudras — get money or happiness, respectively. The same psychoanalytic interpretation may be heard differently depending on the listener’s ears.
Nathan Szajnberg, MD, Managing Editor.
Here are Jonathan’s comments:
While treating psychotherapy with some skepticism, Ashis Nandy finds himself quite sympathetic to Freud’s views on the question of happiness. Here is his summary of his recent paper followed by a link to the whole thing.
“The idea of happiness has changed. It has emerged as a measurable, autonomous, manageable, psychological variable in the global middle-class culture. The self-conscious, determined search for happiness has gradually transformed the idea of happiness from a mental state to an objectified quality of life that can be attained the way an athlete after training under specialists and going through a strict regimen of exercises and diet wins a medal in a track meet. Might it be that the sense of well-being of a mentally healthy person shows its robustness by being able to live with some amount of unhappiness and what is commonly seen as ill-health?”
Jonathan House, M.D.