Daniel Nettle - Happiness. The Science Behind Your Smile [2006]

Book Description
Publication Date: July 1, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0192805584 | ISBN-13: 978-0192805584 | Edition: 1
In a world obsessed by happiness, this is the first book to look thoroughly at what happiness is and how it works. Bringing together the latest insights from psychiatry, psychology, and philosophy, Daniel Nettle sheds brilliant light on this most basic of human desires.
Nettle examines whether people are basically happy or unhappy, whether success can make us happy, what sort of remedies to unhappiness work, why some people are happier than others, and much more. The book is packed with fascinating observations. We discover the evolutionary reason why negative thoughts are more powerful than positive ones. We read that happiness varies from country to country--the Swiss are much more happy than Bulgarians. And we learn that, in a poll among people aged 42 years old (peak mid-life crisis time) more than half rated their happiness an 8, 9, or 10 out of 10, and 90% rated it above 5. (Like the children of Lake Wobegon, Nettle quips, pretty much everyone is above average in happiness.) Nettle, a psychologist, is particularly insightful in discussing the brain systems underlying emotions and moods, ranging from serotonin, "the happiness chemical"; to mood enhancing drugs such as D-fenfluramine, which reduces negative thinking in less than an hour; to the part of the brain that, when electrically stimulated, provides feeling of benevolent calm and even euphoria. In the end, Nettle suggests that we would all probably be happier by trading income or material goods for time with people or hobbies. But most people do not do so.
Happiness offers a remarkable portrait of the feeling that poets, politicians, and philosophers all agree truly makes the world go round.

Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
What is happiness—is it an unpredictable emotion like joy? A rational construct like personal fulfillment? Or is it some subtle, elusive combination of both? In this enjoyable, thought-provoking book, Nettle digs into the subject with great insight and just a bit of cheeky irreverence. In clear, succinct prose, he argues "that what we are programmed for by evolution is not happiness itself, but a set of beliefs about the kinds of things that will bring happiness, and a disposition to pursue them." He cites survey after survey that report that people's sense of their own happiness outstrips their actual material well-being. Nettle, a biological psychologist at Britain's Open University, describes the pursuit of happiness in stark binary terms—fear and attraction, fight and flight, need and desire. Hard-wired to survive in a world of immediate physical danger, human beings are left to muddle through in today's world of relative safety. Nettle traces the modern epidemic of anxiety and depression to these vestigial aspects of our brain and hormonal structure. Ending on an optimistic note, the author sees a population buoyed by advances in both psychotherapy and medication. With absolute clarity and admirable brevity, Nettle explores the pursuit of happiness and, happily, makes good sense of it all. 15 b&w illus. (July)

From Scientific American
The right to "the pursuit of happiness" is enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, and Americans are obviously hot on the trail: they pop pills, go to therapy, and spend millions of dollars on self-help tapes. Daniel Nettle, a British psychologist, tries to explain what happiness is and critiques the methods people are using to achieve it. And although Happiness is far from a how-to book, Nettle does conclude with a bit of advice on finding it. Nettle begins by defining the kind of happiness that interests him. Joy, the simple pleasure from finding lost money, is too trivial, and the "good life" is too much of a moralization. Instead his work focuses on "subjective wellbeing" or life satisfaction—which he says is what most people are seeking. Paradoxically, although many of the great European ponderers of the human condition—he quotes Freud, Sartre, Schopenhauer and others—agree with Western religions that life is a somewhat grim journey toward death, opinion surveys consistently show that people everywhere consider themselves fairly happy. They plan to be happier in the future, too. In light of this penchant, Nettle believes evolution has endowed us with a "happiness system" that allows us to feel satisfied with life yet remain convinced that if only we had another child, made more money or lost 10 pounds we would be truly happy. Not all our pursuits are equally effective, he says. Americans today have far more money than their grandparents did; still, there is no sign they are happier. Having more social connections and good marriages, on the other hand, does promote satisfaction, and Nettle essentially equates happiness with satisfaction. He enlivens this discussion with some odd facts: people believe they can overcome almost any adversity, but living in constantly noisy places reduces happiness. And although most things money can buy quickly fade in value, breast implants seem to create a lasting high. The book includes one chapter on the interactions of Prozac, opiates, ecstasy, and the serotonin and dopamine systems and how these compounds work in our brains to fight depression or induce feelings of pleasure. Yet Nettle does not consider biochemistry a source of happiness, and he moves on. He concludes this pleasant, jargon-free book with some advice: total happiness is not attainable, but you can manipulate your mind and life to reduce the impact of negative emotion, increase positive emotion and—most important—stop consciously seeking happiness at all. He quotes an old joke about the Dalai Lama, who is visited by a rich acolyte bearing a huge, gift-wrapped box. The Dalai Lama opens the box to find it empty and exclaims, "Exactly what I’ve always wanted!"Jonathan Beard

From Booklist
The Declaration of Independence guarantees the right to pursue it. The government of the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan recently vowed to increase it for its constituents. From ancient times, philosophers have pronounced it the ultimate purpose of life. So why, then, Nettle asks, does happiness remain so elusive? Basically, the answer boils down to an inbred confusion between happiness and achievement. As competitive beings, humans are hardwired to mistakenly believe that, say, money, a nicer house, or more authority at work will make them happy. The sad truth, Nettle says, is that more of anything satisfies only as long as it exceeds what others around us have gained of the same things. If one owns less than one's neighbors, satisfaction will be elusive. And forget about happiness. Money can't buy it. Like anything else worthwhile, we must work to achieve it, but such work must make us happy more than it makes us wealthy. The reader may wonder whether researching this little book that reflects no small effort to demystify happiness made Nettle happy. Donna Chavez

Reviews
"Provocative.... The author unearths a few everyday characteristics shared by people who say they are happy, including good health, a feeling of autonomy, and social connectiveness. To that list, one might add browsing through this thought-provoking book."--O: The Oprah Magazine

"Buy the couch or go for the resort vacation? Scientists around the world have explored such questions to learn what makes the human animal happy. In 'Happiness,' Daniel Nettle translates recent studies on brain systems, dopamine, anti-depressants, hallucinogens and the marketing of happiness.... He also quotes Nathaniel Hawthorne: 'Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.'"--Los Angeles Times

"The glib, pop-psych title of biological psychologist Daniel Nettle's book belies a provocative argument: Our unending quests for life's big and little perks--a new iPod, a tenured professorship--have little or no impact on our happiness. Most of Happiness is devoted to assailing popular myths about happiness.... But, as if to compensate for reducing these assumptions to ashes, Nettle presents an unexpected jewel: Understanding the irrational characteristics of happiness makes it easier to manipulate ourselves into being happy."--San Francisco Chronicle

"For your summertime science reading, there's Daniel Nettle's 'Happiness: The Science Behind Your Smile'.... Nettle picks through the latest research in psychology, psychiatry and philosophy to tell us who the happiest people are around the world and why; how negative thoughts served evolving humans; and how the brain systems behind emotions and moods really work."--Los Angeles Times Book Review

"In this enjoyable, thought-provoking book, Nettle digs into the subject with great insight and just a bit of cheeky irreverence.... With absolute clarity and admirable brevity, Nettle explores the pursuit of happiness and, happily, makes good sense of it all."--Publishers Weekly

"Nettle's presentation of evolutionary, societal, and brain chemistry-related forces that influence how we define and try to achieve greater happiness makes for a thought-provoking read." --Library Journal

"From page one, Nettle takes a commanding, level-headed approach to his subject, turning out accessible cleverness and even intermittent cheekiness. Nettle recognizes the prevailing backbone of happiness--our constant need to outdo and out-consume--as a fairly sizable sham. And he predicts our perception of happiness is so closely tied to competition with others that there will always be a disparity between what we have and what we think we want."--Ottawa Citizen

"Engagingly and accessibly written."--Buffalo News

About the Author
Daniel Nettle is Lecturer in Biological Psychology at the Open University. He is the author of Strong Imagination: Madness, Creativity, and Human Value and co-author of Vanishing Voices (with Suzanne Romaine). He lives in the U.K.