What Is The Source Of Your Happiness?
I read an article in the Journal of Medical Ethics entitled, "A proposal to classify happiness as a psychiatric disorder." The article was written by Richard P Bentall of Liverpool University in 1992. The author's hypothesis was that happiness is an abnormality, and should be classified as a disease similar to Schizophrenia. Now the author was not saying that happiness is as damaging to the individual as a major psychological disorder. He proposed that happiness be classified as a "major affective disorder, pleasant type." In other words, it may be a disorder, but it is not recognized as displaying any negatively valued symptoms.
The author posited this hypothesis:
"... Happiness is statistically abnormal, consists of a discrete cluster of symptoms, is associated with a range of cognitive abnormalities, and probably reflects the abnormal functioning of the central nervous system... "
What does all this mean? We probably know what "statistically abnormal means. I guess most of us are not happy. In determining whether or not happiness is a disorder, the author discusses accepted means for determining abnormalities that are disruptive to the individual. He talks about happiness being identified as a disease. An identified psychological disease will demonstrate clusters of symptoms that psychologists look for in an individual's behavior.
The author also explores biological reasons and the possible disruption of the central nervous system as a cause of happiness. Some type of stimulation that produces happiness or euphoria. However, this biological cause produces a disadvantage for the individual. For example, happiness has been linked to obesity, alcohol consumption, or impulsive behavior. Also, happiness can lead to manic behavior that is followed by depression. Any of these "disadvantages" could possibly lead to a shortened life.
Another possibility is that the behaviors that result from happiness are irrational. The author describes this as, "... irrational if it is bizarre and socially unacceptable, reduces the individual's expected utilities, or is not grounded on good reasons." The author has a hard time identifying irrational behavior. What one person considers irrational, may be quite normal for someone else, especially when different cultures are discussed.
None of the above will probably convince you that happiness is a psychological disorder similar to schizophrenia, but what if it is actually a statistical abnormality for humans? What if fallen mankind is incapable of experiencing happiness? What if happiness, or what we consider happiness, is an allusion?
Let me ask you a series of questions. Is happiness temporal? In other words, can happiness be happiness if it is not permanent? Can we be happy one moment and not happy the next? Is that true happiness? If we are happy one moment and not happy the next, then our happiness must depend on something that causes the feeling of happiness. Is happiness the possession of something we desire? Is happiness the result of being healthy? Is happiness the result of a good job? Is happiness being content with life? What happens when we don't get what we want, or we aren't content with life, or our health begins to decline? Are we then unhappy? So, if we are not getting what we want, then we must be unhappy. If that is the case, is mankind unhappy by default? If unhappiness is the norm, then happiness, especially lasting happiness, is abnormal. If true and lasting happiness is out of the reach of humanity, then happiness, as we understand it, is a psychological disorder.
But don't we all want to be happy? Who wants to be unhappy? If happiness is abnormal in the human state, then why do we seek happiness? It seems reasonable to state that happiness is not the normal state of a human if we as humans must pursue it. We must not be happy people. Otherwise, happiness would be a state of normalcy. Unhappiness, on the other hand, would be a state we experience when we fall out of happiness because of some internal or external stimulus.
I think our seeking happiness is another feeble attempt to grasp at something we cannot attain on our own. Like true worship, salvation, and justification, we grasp at the unattainable in a futile attempt to regain the standing our race once had. We are fallen. In our fallen state, true happiness is unattainable because happiness is not of us. Happiness is of God.
As fallen creatures, we are not just people who commit an occasional sin. We are people who have completely fallen from the grace our race once enjoyed. We can only attain a shadow of true happiness in short lived snatches. Even this happiness is only a glimpse of true happiness. It is a little pathetic isn't it? But that is a good thing, because it helps to point us to true happiness which is life in communion with God.
Augustine of Hippo, one of the greatest theologians of all time, said this, "For God has created us to him and our heart is restless until it rests in God." We were created to be in communion with God. Our desire from the start was to be our own God, and this broke our communion with God. Now we seek happiness on our own, but it is out of reach.
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Look at the two paragraphs below taken from Augustine's Confessions:
"How sweet it was for me to be rid of those fruitless joys which I had once feared to lose... You drove them from me, you who are the true, the sovereign joy. You drove them from me and took their place, you who are sweeter than all pleasure, though not of flesh and blood, you who outshine all light, yet are hidden deeper than any secret in our hearts, you who surpass all honor, though not in the eyes of men who see all honor in themselves... O Lord my God, my Light, my Wealth, and My Salvation."
"I sought for pleasures, sublimities, truths, and so fell headlong into sorrows, confusions, errors. Thanks be to Thee, my joy and my glory and my confidence, my God, thanks be to Thee for Thy gifts; but do Thou preserve them to me. For so wilt Thou preserve me, and those things shall be enlarged and perfected which Thou hast given me, and I myself shall be with Thee, since even to be Thou hast given me."
You can feel Augustine's passion for God, and his acknowledgement that God was his all. Once we realize that all things are from God, only then can we let go of this world and its temporary pleasures, its self worship, its false hopes.
The author posited this hypothesis:
"... Happiness is statistically abnormal, consists of a discrete cluster of symptoms, is associated with a range of cognitive abnormalities, and probably reflects the abnormal functioning of the central nervous system... "
What does all this mean? We probably know what "statistically abnormal means. I guess most of us are not happy. In determining whether or not happiness is a disorder, the author discusses accepted means for determining abnormalities that are disruptive to the individual. He talks about happiness being identified as a disease. An identified psychological disease will demonstrate clusters of symptoms that psychologists look for in an individual's behavior.
The author also explores biological reasons and the possible disruption of the central nervous system as a cause of happiness. Some type of stimulation that produces happiness or euphoria. However, this biological cause produces a disadvantage for the individual. For example, happiness has been linked to obesity, alcohol consumption, or impulsive behavior. Also, happiness can lead to manic behavior that is followed by depression. Any of these "disadvantages" could possibly lead to a shortened life.
Another possibility is that the behaviors that result from happiness are irrational. The author describes this as, "... irrational if it is bizarre and socially unacceptable, reduces the individual's expected utilities, or is not grounded on good reasons." The author has a hard time identifying irrational behavior. What one person considers irrational, may be quite normal for someone else, especially when different cultures are discussed.
None of the above will probably convince you that happiness is a psychological disorder similar to schizophrenia, but what if it is actually a statistical abnormality for humans? What if fallen mankind is incapable of experiencing happiness? What if happiness, or what we consider happiness, is an allusion?
Let me ask you a series of questions. Is happiness temporal? In other words, can happiness be happiness if it is not permanent? Can we be happy one moment and not happy the next? Is that true happiness? If we are happy one moment and not happy the next, then our happiness must depend on something that causes the feeling of happiness. Is happiness the possession of something we desire? Is happiness the result of being healthy? Is happiness the result of a good job? Is happiness being content with life? What happens when we don't get what we want, or we aren't content with life, or our health begins to decline? Are we then unhappy? So, if we are not getting what we want, then we must be unhappy. If that is the case, is mankind unhappy by default? If unhappiness is the norm, then happiness, especially lasting happiness, is abnormal. If true and lasting happiness is out of the reach of humanity, then happiness, as we understand it, is a psychological disorder.
But don't we all want to be happy? Who wants to be unhappy? If happiness is abnormal in the human state, then why do we seek happiness? It seems reasonable to state that happiness is not the normal state of a human if we as humans must pursue it. We must not be happy people. Otherwise, happiness would be a state of normalcy. Unhappiness, on the other hand, would be a state we experience when we fall out of happiness because of some internal or external stimulus.
I think our seeking happiness is another feeble attempt to grasp at something we cannot attain on our own. Like true worship, salvation, and justification, we grasp at the unattainable in a futile attempt to regain the standing our race once had. We are fallen. In our fallen state, true happiness is unattainable because happiness is not of us. Happiness is of God.
As fallen creatures, we are not just people who commit an occasional sin. We are people who have completely fallen from the grace our race once enjoyed. We can only attain a shadow of true happiness in short lived snatches. Even this happiness is only a glimpse of true happiness. It is a little pathetic isn't it? But that is a good thing, because it helps to point us to true happiness which is life in communion with God.
Augustine of Hippo, one of the greatest theologians of all time, said this, "For God has created us to him and our heart is restless until it rests in God." We were created to be in communion with God. Our desire from the start was to be our own God, and this broke our communion with God. Now we seek happiness on our own, but it is out of reach.
fashionbydux.us
Look at the two paragraphs below taken from Augustine's Confessions:
"How sweet it was for me to be rid of those fruitless joys which I had once feared to lose... You drove them from me, you who are the true, the sovereign joy. You drove them from me and took their place, you who are sweeter than all pleasure, though not of flesh and blood, you who outshine all light, yet are hidden deeper than any secret in our hearts, you who surpass all honor, though not in the eyes of men who see all honor in themselves... O Lord my God, my Light, my Wealth, and My Salvation."
"I sought for pleasures, sublimities, truths, and so fell headlong into sorrows, confusions, errors. Thanks be to Thee, my joy and my glory and my confidence, my God, thanks be to Thee for Thy gifts; but do Thou preserve them to me. For so wilt Thou preserve me, and those things shall be enlarged and perfected which Thou hast given me, and I myself shall be with Thee, since even to be Thou hast given me."
You can feel Augustine's passion for God, and his acknowledgement that God was his all. Once we realize that all things are from God, only then can we let go of this world and its temporary pleasures, its self worship, its false hopes.
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