Goodreads asked Randy J. Paterson:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Randy J. Paterson "How to be Miserable" stems from several sources. First, the concept of asking what people might do if, for some reason, they wanted to feel worse rather than better, comes from a group therapy program I have been associated with for many years. Depressed clients frequently sense that they have absolutely no control over their emotions, but when asked if they could make themselves feel worse, they can identify many strategies. In doing so, they often realize that they are already doing many of things they come up with.

Second, in recent years I have offered a public talk series called Psychology Salon. I called one of these talks "How to be Miserable" based on these early experiences and fully expected no one would appear. Instead, the large lecture hall filled and additional seating had to be brought in. The ideas in that talk were fleshed out and became the book.

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