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The Happiness Myth: Why What We Think Is Right Is Wrong

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"We think of our version of a happy life as more like physics than like pop songs; we expect the people of the next century to agree with our basic tenets—for instance, that broccoli is good for a happy life and that opium is bad—but they will not. Our rules for living are more like the history of pop songs. They make weird sense only to the people of each given time period. They aren't true. This book shows you how past myths functioned, and likewise how our myths of today function, and thus lets you out of the trap of thinking you have to pay heed to any of them."

The Happiness Myth is a fascinating cultural history that both reveals our often silly assumptions about how we pursue happiness today and offers up real historical lessons that have stood the test of time. Hecht delivers memorable insights into the five practical means we choose to achieve happiness: wisdom, drugs, money, bodies, and celebration.

Hecht liberates us from today's scolding, quasi-scientific messages that insist there is only one way to care for our minds and bodies. Hecht looks at contemporary happiness advice and explains why much of it doesn't work. "Modern culture," she writes, "is misrepresenting me and spending a lot of money to do it."

Rich with hilarious anecdotes about both failed and successful paths to happiness, Hecht's book traces a common thread of advice—she calls it "sour charm wisdom"—that we can still apply today to create authentic, lasting happiness.

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

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About the author

Jennifer Michael Hecht

14 books184 followers
Jennifer Michael Hecht is a poet, historian, philosopher, and author.

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 79 reviews
Profile Image for Todd.
13 reviews3 followers
July 4, 2008
I'm not a fan of self help and self improvement books. In fact, I think 99.9% of them are pure bullshit. Fortunately, "The Happiness Myth" is not one of them. Rather than trying to present her readers with another lame new age formula for happiness, Jennifer Michael Hecht uses her training as a historian to look back at the ways people have pursued happiness over the whole course of human history, point out some basic traits that seem to have worked over and over agin, and compare them with our (apparently rather silly) current views about what creates happiness. Her conclusions are complex, often surprising, and frankly not all that optimistic. But as an old curmudgeon in training myself, I enjoyed her insights and would recommend this book to anyone looking for a fresh take on what makes humans happy.
Profile Image for Elaine Nelson.
285 reviews47 followers
July 3, 2008
This may in fact be the most useful bit of philosophy I've ever read. The general premise: understanding the crazy things that made people happy in the past, or that people thought would make them happy, will help you (dear reader) see and consider how crazy our own ideas are now. And for me at least, it worked.

She covers all the big topics: sex, money, drugs, food, and celebrations, with lots of exceptionally weird info along the way. Most useful, though, is her division of "happiness" into 3 kinds: good day (cake, naps), euphoria (skydiving, religious revelations), and good life (fulfillment, family). It helps in the same way that Bruce Schneier's explanation of security tradeoffs helps in that area: you become more conscious of what it is that you're trading off.

Highly, highly recommended.

(Also, I want to go find some Marcus Aurelius now.)
Profile Image for Tamlynem.
178 reviews
January 17, 2010
This book changed my view on several topics--drugs and life-perspective are two that come to mind. One of the themes that she talks about is "Take what's yours." It sounds like settling, but it also is about being satisfied with what you have. It's a little zen, I guess. She quotes Marcus Aurelius a lot.
On drugs, she points out that they have been a part of cultural celebrations for all of human history and that our current definition of "drug" is arbitrary. Also she cites some lesser-known historical examples to show that as far as health goes, we will probably find out we're doing a million things that are terrible for us now that we don't even know yet. So why freak out if you don't follow your Dr.'s instructions to the letter?
I really enjoyed this book. Everyone can get something out of it.
Profile Image for Joshua Buhs.
647 reviews133 followers
September 1, 2019
A welcome antidote, though it probably lasts too long, so to speak.

Hecht is smart, and has an encyclopedia approach to her subject: what happiness means in America today (or 2007: there are a couple of topics that date the book). How happiness continues to be cramped by puritans of very stripes.

Her basic thesis is straightforward, and correct: 1) That there are multiple kinds of happiness--day-by-day, euphoric, long-lasting, and these sometimes work at cross purposes, though all come together to make a fulfilling life. 2) That the root of happiness is reached by practicing four essential habits, present in all wisdom traditions (as she calls them): know yourself, control your desires, take what's yours (and leave what's not), remember death.

After an introduction, the book devotes a chapter to each of these. Hecht then moves on to her contentions, instigations, and provocations. These are divided into four sections, with several chapters each on drugs, money, bodies, and celebrations. She argues a middle path (which is nonetheless out of step with official rhetoric in America) that drugs and money have a place in a happy life. All things equal, it's easier to be happy with some money. And drugs do make people happy--heck, that's why there are antidepressants. But, as with other desires, they should be controlled. Same thing with our bodies--feed them, enjoy food, don't obsess over being too fit or too thin, neither of which, on average, make people happier. With celebrations, she seems to suggest that America could use more civic rituals. (It's an argument she makes regarding money, too: money turns us inward, our entertainments isolating).

As I say, I find all of this persuasive, because it fits with my prior biases. I only wish the book could have been a little more focused, Hecht wearing her learning a little more lightly. As it is, there are a lot of tangents and it is easy to get lost in sections since she wanders so widely. This too can be a fine approach to the subject, but it sits uneasily with what is otherwise an enumerating imagination. Never quite coheres, I guess I'd say.
Profile Image for Oli Maia.
Author 15 books38 followers
March 18, 2017
gostei mais pelas informações históricas do que pelo conjunto do ensaio (justamente porque me parece que falta unidade). de qualquer forma é interessante por botar algumas noções e ideais de felicidade em perspectiva.
Profile Image for Chad.
169 reviews8 followers
March 12, 2019
I love reading Jennifer Micheal Hecht’s books. My biggest problem with her is that I think she’s a little bit too smart, and sometimes makes conclusions that seem obvious to her, but for which she has only provided a mere trace of breadcrumbs that the reader can then use to try to catch up with her. In this book, she uses history to show ways in which humans have historically attempted to find happiness. Contrasting this with our current theories of happiness, good behavior, and culturally accepted norms, she shows both the commonalities present today and in the past, as well as the ways in which people in the past got things so obviously wrong, using the latter to underscore the possibility that in some cases, we may also be getting it wrong today.

She posits three major methods in which happiness can be found that seem to be present throughout history: first, in the finding and repeating of daily activities that bring pleasure, second, in obtaining occasional moments of euphoria, and third in leading a life that one can look back on with pride. Oftentimes, she points out, these three things are in direct conflict. But she suggests that we should not only learn to live with that tension, but that we should embrace it as an essential characteristic of being human.

The places where she points out that society is maybe currently getting it wrong that challenged my thinking the most are in the three areas of money, drugs, and sex. Our current culture praises these things as worthy of pursuit while at the same time casting shame on those who pursue them too aggressively or obtain them to what the rest of us consider excess. She rather gently suggests that, while we may not want to go overboard, these are areas in which we may want to reconsider our current thoughts and practices. Money can buy happiness. Drug use has a long history of association with happiness. Sex is one of the fastest shortcuts to happiness. As with everything in life, of course, moderation is an essential ingredient in these things, balancing their often short-term benefits with the admonition that a life well lived is also a key ingredient for lasting happiness.

Of course, those aren’t the only areas she points out. Much of the book was a very captivating look at past practices in these and other areas, and the sheer amount of historical research she did for this book—along with the amusing stories and anecdotes that we get to enjoy as the result of that research—is worth the entry price alone.

This book offers great stories, intriguing insights, and practical and effective suggestions to increase happiness, end even ends with a sample set of lists of practical, everyday activities that you can consider as you make your own happiness plan. As an added bonus, many of the endnotes contain interesting tidbits of commentary, which I wish I had known from the start of my reading.
Profile Image for Spike Dunn.
11 reviews9 followers
March 31, 2008
Fantastic, but I wouldn't expect less from the writer of "Doubt: A History." Not about how happiness is a myth but about how what we think will make us happy (and what won't make us happy) is often false. She's just a damn good writer.
Profile Image for Barbara.
67 reviews1 follower
April 10, 2019
Keep Reading

It helps if you know some history, or have read philosophy. The beginning is a bit tough, and the ideas presented seem a bit chaotic. But keep reading. There is a point to the book. I found a different way to think about happiness and a reminder to slow down and observe.
Profile Image for John Crippen.
556 reviews2 followers
May 8, 2017
I first learned of Jennifer Michael Hecht’s newest title, his interview with her on the Point of Inquiry podcast. I highly recommend listening to the interview before reading the book. It gives a very good feel for Hecht’s personality and approach to the subject.
The book begins with a definition of the three distinct kinds of happiness: a good day, euphoria and a happy life. I really enjoyed the philosophy/psychology in this section, regarding how the three kinds of happiness are very different and often at odds with each other (for example, a good day might include celebrating by eating and drinking a lot at a party….which cannot be done every day and still allow you to maintain a happy life). Next, Hecht reviews the four ancient happiness wisdom imperatives to know yourself, control your desires, take what’s yours and remember death, then spends the largest section of the book covering four areas of happiness: Drugs, Money, Bodies and Celebration. In each area, she reviews the historical perspectives and contrasts them to today’s “cultural trance definition” of happiness. A brief Conclusion encourages the reader to consider what they are doing to nourish/create each of the three kinds of happiness and exhorts the reader to get out there and do something and note how well it works.
The overall message from the book for me was that we live under the strong spell of our culture’s definitions of happiness. The antidote to that spell is an historical understanding of happiness.
The book was easy to read, since the subject was very interesting to me. Hecht writes in the first person, so reading the book is like listening to her give a lecture. This caught me off guard at first, but you get used to it. The familiarity of the first person style is balanced by rigorous footnotes and references.
Profile Image for McNeil.
93 reviews
December 27, 2009
I think a lengthy quotation from the book would best sum it up: "This book has also addressed the matter of truth for its own sake--not to do with happiness, but with reality. Consider a whole century of men and women straining to conserve the body's energy, minimizing sport and exertion in order not to overspend their reserves, and then the entire next century straining to exercise the body so that it will become more efficient. You have been told by physicists and yogis that reality is not what it seems, that your mind makes the world you live in, and you believe it; but you also don't believe it. Half the point of this book was for me to try to cheer everyone up at once. The other half was to demonstrate ways that we look up at the blue sky and say 'green.' What I have offered is, in its own way, a philosophy. I have tried to show the disjuncture between what we do and what we say we are doing. I hope I have marshaled the evidence necessary to show what a vague hold on reality we have" (319).

Seriously, she shows with millenia worth of examples, how we are duped by our culture into believing that what we are experiencing and seeing (all products of nothing else than our culture) is some how the Truth.

Profile Image for Todd Martin.
Author 4 books83 followers
April 1, 2009
Just to be clear ... “The Happiness Myth” is NOT a self help book. It's an academic look at the cultural and historic al attitudes and behaviors that were felt to contribute to happiness and how these views have shifted over time. Disparate topics include money, drugs, sex, food, wisdom and celebration.

It’s clear we have a complex relationship with the things that contribute to happiness. Examples of these shifting attitudes include:
Money as the root of all evil, yet the large role it plays in our day-to-day lives and in meeting basic needs.
Food as both a means of celebration and as a cause of obesity and disease.
Shopping as a source of short lived joy and rising debt.
Legal, illegal and prescription drugs and the ways they are viewed within societies.

Hecht offers some interesting insights into some of the historical basis behind shifting cultural attitudes towards these themes and posits that societal views are likely to continue to evolve through time.
Profile Image for Jake.
927 reviews53 followers
December 14, 2015
After reading Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson I had high hopes for this and it didn't disappoint. Hecht says that there are different types of happiness: Good Day Happiness which comes from good entertainment or taking a walk or getting a massage, Euphoria can be experienced through great sex or drugs or crowd celebrations, and A Happy Life gained through rewarding relationships, skills mastered, etc... All types of happiness are necessary but gaining one can often cause another to be lacking. I suppose it's all about balance and recognizing what makes you happy at any given time. A very smart book. I love how Jennifer Michael thinks.
Profile Image for Melissa McCauley.
433 reviews7 followers
March 30, 2015
“Money Can’t Buy Happiness” Um… YES IT CAN. Money can buy a safe place to live, food, clothing, healthcare, security for your family… Money means you can pay for an education and not have to work some soul-killing, back-breaking job that kills you by 40, and you have time to sit around and read a book like this. See? HAPPY

This book points out how much ridiculous bull our society puts out there. You should be ashamed of what you eat, you should be ashamed of how much you weigh, of how you have sex… this drug is good to take, but *that* drug with the same effect is bad to take. I’m sure many people will not like this book because it points out the fool’s gold in their sacred cows, but I wish we as a society would talk more about these things.

It makes me happy to see the dimply layer of cellulite on my thighs. There. I admitted it.
Even so, I feel compelled to justify it because of all the messages I’ve been fed throughout my life that fat is bad.
Profile Image for -uht!.
127 reviews11 followers
March 31, 2009
"When you hear that so-and-so has said something horrid about you, you remember the ninety-nine times when you have refrained from uttering the most just and well-deserved criticism of him, and forget the hundredth time when in an unguarded moment you have declared what you believe to be the truth about him. Is this the reward, you feel, for all your long forbearance? Yet from his point of view your conduct appears exactly what his appears to you; he never knows of the times when you have not spoken, he knows only of the hundredth time when you did speak." -Marcus Aurelius

"The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things." -Marcus Aurelius
Profile Image for Darnell.
1,451 reviews
July 27, 2013
Contains some interesting and worthwhile ideas, but overall deeply disappointing. It's more interested in making a large number of assertions than actually considering anything in any depth; this problem is exacerbated by the mere handful of footnotes provided.

An example: "These tournaments, like the Crusades, were a contained way to release the extra energies of the body politic. Nowadays we say that exercise gives us energy. Which is it? Does exercise siphon off excess energy or make us vigorous and energetic?" That is the end of the discussion, as the author apparently lacks any interest in seeing if there is any evidence on the subject, and this pattern is common to the book. Questioning commonly held beliefs is good, but not when it's a smug end to the conversation.
Profile Image for Sylvester (Taking a break in 2023).
2,041 reviews87 followers
September 28, 2010
Enjoyed the author's investigations into the changing views on health, food, etc. Some of the weird fads out there! And I had no idea that Marcus Aurelius of all people was an opium addict - and Elizabeth Barrett Browning??!! Amazing! A lot of food for thought in this book. My favorite line - "The fact that something makes perfect sense doesn't mean it is true." And another one - "Think about how strange it is that the same culture would invent escalators, elevators, StairMaster machines and step classes." I don't know that I agree with Hecht on some of her conclusions, but this was an interesting and often funny read.
Profile Image for Adam.
2 reviews
May 15, 2008
There's a lot in here: Eating, Exercise, Sex and Treatments (e.g., massage...). Much like Freakonomics, it means to dispel conventional wisdom. It pursues that goal by not only tossing in a few figures that counter current perceptions, but - more interestingly - it does a good job of putting things in historical context. Basically, today's science is tomorrow's laughably outdated mysticism.

It's good beach reading: thought provoking but not hard to digest. I didn't agree with everything I read, but I'm glad to have read it.
Profile Image for Nick.
925 reviews16 followers
October 8, 2010
Wonderful book which challenges a number of accepted viewpoints, such as that money can't buy happiness. The author is a very intelligent historian and philosopher, and 90% of the book is full of her intriguing insights into cultural history, always pushing the notion that what we accept as normal today (such as marijuana and cocaine being bad and illegal) was not necessarily always the case. I loved this book, although she does tend to run on a bit, and a large portion of the final chapters seemed like filler.
Profile Image for Lost in a Good Book.
96 reviews2 followers
March 13, 2017
I really enjoyed how Jennifer Hecht unpicked society. I love challenging how I see the world and why, and found much of her thinking creative and inspiring. She's articulate and convincing and the book is well researched.
I recommend it for everyone - yes, everyone. She confronts how socially "manipulated" all our thinking is, and gives great evidence to prove it. From drugs to our bodies to what we eat and how we celebrate, this book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand why they think what they think!
Profile Image for EdMohs.
76 reviews2 followers
July 14, 2007
I'm reading this book right now. I like this author. She modern yet is well studied in philosphical history and know how to draw out great comaparsions. Happiness studies are rage the right now with many books being published on the subject. She a provides good analysis and tells some unpleasant truth about our habits. Her style or metaphors sometimes loses me. But she provides some interesting history on drug use, excersize, eating ect. All'n'all a really fine teacher.
Profile Image for Jasmine.
2 reviews
May 18, 2011
she tells it like it is then explains. in the old days they wore corsets to be beautiful these days were so into getting skinny its gross. we need to realize that corsets seem weird but getting paper thin isnt? no it is. it did make me happier and im not even finished yet. i am a happier person after reading this.
Profile Image for Ginny.
25 reviews
January 8, 2008
Fascinating history on how our culture shapes our perceptions of what we need to be happy, and how obediently we follow along. Read this to remind yourself to not be a slave to culture and to keep an open mind to other possibilities. Of note is her justification for recreational drug use.
Profile Image for Kitty.
86 reviews14 followers
September 10, 2008
A good book that made me feel a little less frantic about things. Also, great description of what used to happen when we stopped for coffee... mmm, pie...
Profile Image for Kathy.
95 reviews
July 13, 2008
I not only read it, underlined passages, made notes in the margins, but sent copies to friends.
Profile Image for Ginn.
178 reviews21 followers
December 29, 2009
A look at our cultural beliefs regarding happiness, putting the present in context of the past. I found it pretty enlightening, but I would have liked more examples of past behaviour.
2 reviews
Read
February 2, 2009
must read...historical philosophical perspective on happiness
5 reviews
February 14, 2009
This is a great book, AND it can make you happy. Well-written and well-researched, or at least it gives that impression. Read it!
6 reviews
February 14, 2009
This book is well-written, well-researched, AND it might make you happy. Read it!
195 reviews3 followers
January 21, 2010
I love Hecht's writing and will read anything she ever writes. That's a pledge!
I loved Doubt, too, and this is so enlightening and freeing. Read it!
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