Studies elsewhere find that living with a sufficient sense of purpose reduces the risk of depression and strokes and helps addicts recover from addiction. People more likely to agree with statements such as, ‘Some people wander aimlessly through life, but I am not one of them,’ have been found to live longer, even when other factors are controlled for. When I asked Cole to define eudaemonia he said it was ‘kind of striving after a noble goal’. ‘So it’s heroic behaviour in a literary sense?’ ‘Right,’ he said. ‘Exactly.’
