What is happiness anyway? Is it simply a fantasy? This book attempts to show that some commonplace definitions of fulfilment are not as ideal as they are assumed to be, and asserts that there may be other approaches to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The book traces the concept of happiness from its roots in early twentieth-century European psychiatry to the present day. The author argues that happiness is now defined by a desire to be "authentic," to experience physical pleasure and to cultivate a quirky individuality. But over the last fifty years, these once-revolutionary ideas have been exploited to the hilt by Madison Avenue, pushing us to live lives that have made us seem vapid, insecure and vain.
Some of today’s excesses would have been considered a distraction to real happiness centuries ago. The book recommends a more traditional, communal form of happiness to replace personal pleasure or creature comforts as an ideal. This advice recalls a vision of the good life that brings with it deeper engagement with the world we live in and an abandonment of the individualism and pleasure-seeking of recent generations. With such a worldview as a guiding principle, it is hoped that we can build a world on the principles of greatness and achieve personal fulfilment.
Carl Cederström
Carl Cederström is an associate professor of organisation studies at Stockholm Business School, Stockholm University. He is co-author of The Wellness Syndrome (with André Spicer), and Dead Man Working (with Peter Fleming).
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
