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522:, accepted its central premise of a "striking similarity between the advice of the ancients on how to live, and the thoughts of modern psychologists on how to have a healthy mind." He was impressed by the breadth of Haidt's grasp of modern behavioural science, and found the book "by some margin the most intellectually substantial book to arise from the 'positive psychology' movement."
306:) that external conditions are not what matter. However, Haidt argues that we now know that some external circumstances do matter. He identifies ways of improving happiness by altering these, including spending money well, and argues that the Western emphasis on action and striving is not without merit.
151:
of doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. This leads in the fourth chapter to a description of the tendency that people have of seeing faults in others more readily than in themselves, which by simply realizing we might go to some length to rectify and thus come closer to living by the
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Haidt focuses on this last division, between the conscious/reasoned processes and automatic/implicit processes. His metaphor is a rider on the back of an elephant in which the conscious mind is the rider and the unconscious mind is the elephant. The rider is unable to control the elephant by force:
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said and to develop your strengths and realize your native potential. Chapter nine extends the idea that a person's happiness benefits from living virtuously by noting that some feeling of divinity helps where divinity comes through a life-long practice of moral actions. Chapter ten takes this idea
159:
said, or could be that happiness comes from outside. Haidt argues in
Chapter Six that the truth might lie between the two extremes and contends that love depends on more than the self and is crucial to happiness. The seventh chapter asks whether adversity is essential to happiness and provides a
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established the concept of "vital engagement" which characterises work with the most sense of purpose. "Cross-level coherence" within one's self and life is also vital, coherence between the physical, psychological and sociocultural levels. Haidt argues that religion is an evolved mechanism for
146:
The first chapter describes how each person has two parts: the primitive part, which includes our basic instincts; and the highly evolved part, which tries to control the instincts. This effort to control our instincts is shown in chapter two to tend to cause us too much worry, but various
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turns out to be the wisest idea of all. We need, he writes, the perspectives of ancient religion and modern science; of east and west; even of liberal and conservative. "Words of wisdom really do flood over us, but only by drawing from many sources can we become wise."
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of a life-long practice yet further and contends that a happy life is one where you get the relationships right between yourself and others, yourself and your work, and between your work and something larger than yourself—you feel a sense of purpose.
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The introduction first explains that the author's goal is to reduce the infinite 'wisdom' accessible to modern people into 10 great ideas, one per chapter. The remainder of the
Introduction provides a concise preview of those ten chapters as follows.
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Part of our ultra-sociality is that we are constantly trying to manipulate others' perceptions of ourselves, without realizing that we are doing so. As Jesus said, we see the faults of others clearly, but are blind to our own.
443:, Haidt argues that the perception of sacredness and divinity are two basic features of the human mind; the emotions of disgust, moral elevation, and awe tell us about this dimension, but not everybody listens. The "
247:'s "six weapons of influence," Haidt describes ways in which understanding the deep workings of reciprocity can help to solve problems in our social lives and guard against the many ways that we can be manipulated.
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nuanced answer which is that it depends on your stage in life. Achieving happiness is a complex process which includes acting virtuously, and Haidt claims in chapter eight that behaving virtuously means to do as
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techniques, such as meditation, might be employed to detach the worrier from his worries. The third chapter goes to the relationship of the individual to other individuals by beginning with the
130:—and examines them in the light of contemporary psychological research, extracting from them any lessons that still apply to our modern lives. Central to the book are the concepts of virtue,
356:. Haidt discusses how and why some people grow from their suffering, along with ways of improving one's chances of finding post-traumatic growth. Adversity at the right time in life, as
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By the fifth chapter, at the halfway point of the book, Haidt introduces the notion of the
Happiness Hypothesis. The Happiness Hypothesis could be that happiness comes from within, as
341:. Understanding the different kinds of love, he writes, can help explain why people make so many mistakes with love, and why philosophers hate love and give us bad advice about it.
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this explains many puzzles about our mental life, particularly why we have such trouble with weakness of will. Learning how to train the elephant is the secret of self-improvement.
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saying, "I don't think I've ever read a book that laid out the contemporary understanding of the human condition with such simple clarity and sense." Christopher Hart writing in
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It is a common idea that happiness comes from within and can't be found in external things. For a while in the 1990s, psychologists agreed with ancient sages (such as Buddha and
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There are many kinds of love, but, Haidt asserts, they all begin to make sense when you see where love comes from, and what it does. To do this he examines
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Many species have a social life, but among mammals, only humans in particular are ultra-social—able to live in very large cooperative groups.
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447:" can only be understood by acknowledging this dimension, which most liberals and secular thinkers ignore or misunderstand. The work of
294:'s work on "The Myth of Pure Evil." Haidt then discusses ways of taking off "the moral glasses" and seeing the world as it really is.
211:) guide us throughout our lives. People even tend to choose mates, and professions, whose names resemble their own. Though there is a
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Batson, D; Kobrynowicz D; Dinnerstein JL; Kampf HC; Wilson AD (June 1997). "In a very different voice: unmasking moral hypocrisy".
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and role-models to train "the elephant," the automatic responses of the individual. Though the beginnings of
Western virtue lie in
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described the book as "humane, witty and comforting...brilliantly synthesising ancient cultural insights with modern psychology."
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360:'s research on wisdom shows, can make people more compassionate and better able to balance the needs of self and others.
215:, some people are optimists and others pessimists. Haidt discusses three ways of changing those automatic reactions: (1)
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381:, excellence. The ancients, according to Haidt, had a sophisticated psychological understanding of virtue, using
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as an example, Haidt looks at how success can follow virtue, in the broad sense of virtue that goes back to the
417:). With these came a shift from character ethics to quandary ethics, from moral education to moral reasoning.
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wrote, "What doesn't kill me makes me stronger," but this is not true for everyone; adversity may result in
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To address the question of how a common morality can be forged in a diverse society, Haidt turns to
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258:"Why do you see the speck in your neighbour's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?"
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Haidt looks at a number of ways of dividing the self that have existed since ancient times:
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Haidt discusses "the meaning of life," making the distinction between a purpose
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life. Love and work give a sense of meaning to life. A study by
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The
Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom
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The automatic emotional reactions of the "elephant" (affective
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Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification
275:'s description of our "constitutional ignorance" of hypocrisy
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Haidt concludes by arguing that the ancient idea of
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267:has to say about this, beginning with the work of
337:in 1950, and the subsequent work with monkeys by
318:5 Steps to a Happier Life: infographic based on
665:"the moral roots of liberals and conservatives"
271:on cheating and self-justification, mentioning
814:www.happinesshypothesis.com – author's website
613:. Henry Holt & Company Inc. p. 448.
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611:Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty
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528:concluded his review of the book in
782:Hart, Christopher (6 August 2006).
701:Good Work: When excellence and ethi
463:Ch.10: Happiness comes from between
111:is a 2006 book written by American
435:Ch.9: Divinity with or without God
235:Ch.3: Reciprocity with a vengeance
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335:"Maternal Care and Mental Health"
182:lateralisation of brain function
703:cs meet. New York: Basic Books.
354:post-traumatic stress disorder
298:Ch.5: The pursuit of happiness
1:
756:Flint, James (22 July 2006).
713:Nettle, Daniel (4 May 2006).
333:-sponsored study and report,
364:Ch.8: The felicity of virtue
180:left brain vs. right brain (
134:, fulfillment, and meaning.
609:Baumeister, Roy F. (1999).
588:10.1037/0022-3514.72.6.1335
512:received positive reviews.
345:Ch.7: The uses of adversity
282:, and moving on to work by
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310:Ch.6: Love and attachments
251:Ch.4: The faults of others
784:"The bright side of life"
488:creating this coherence.
331:World Health Organization
187:old brain vs. new brain (
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20:The Happiness Hypothesis
834:Popular psychology books
516:, reviewing the book in
510:The Happiness Hypothesis
320:The Happiness Hypothesis
203:Ch.2: Changing your mind
194:controlled vs. automatic
844:Works by Jonathan Haidt
758:"Don't worry, be happy"
693:Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
634:Peterson, Christopher;
477:Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
428:and Peterson's work on
213:bias towards negativity
839:2006 non-fiction books
715:"A search for meaning"
636:Seligman, Martin E. P.
439:Using the metaphor of
430:virtues and strengths.
407:categorical imperative
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169:Ch.1: The divided self
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286:and David Perkins on
263:Haidt looks at what
227:medications such as
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471:life and a purpose
422:positive psychology
138:Summary of chapters
113:social psychologist
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576:J Pers Soc Psychol
424:, specifically to
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97:The Righteous Mind
663:Haidt, Jonathan.
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492:Ch.11: On balance
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327:John Bowlby
284:Deanna Kuhn
149:Golden Rule
57:Basic Books
823:Categories
661:See also:
641:. Oxford.
561:References
223:, and (3)
217:meditation
48:Psychology
829:Happiness
789:The Times
550:Happiness
537:The Times
505:Reception
350:Nietzsche
304:Epictetus
162:Aristotle
132:happiness
54:Publisher
699:. 2001.
544:See also
441:Flatland
426:Seligman
397:and the
596:9177020
451:and of
411:Bentham
368:Taking
209:priming
795:29 May
767:29 May
741:29 May
722:Nature
695:, and
674:28 May
645:
617:
594:
519:Nature
473:within
409:) and
387:fables
383:maxims
229:Prozac
219:, (2)
157:Buddha
124:Buddha
99:
34:Author
718:(PDF)
455:(on "
405:(the
395:Aesop
391:Homer
378:arete
128:Jesus
120:Plato
72:Pages
44:Genre
797:2010
769:2010
743:2010
676:2010
643:ISBN
615:ISBN
592:PMID
483:and
403:Kant
290:and
225:SSRI
126:and
81:ISBN
67:2006
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