Happier?
Subtitle: the history of a cultural movement that aspired to transform America
By: Daniel Horowitz
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2018
Language: eng
Number of pages: 304
ISBN-13: 9780190655648
Subjects: Social conditions; Well-being; Happiness; Quality of life
Description: When a cultural movement that began to take shape in the mid-twentieth century erupted into mainstream American culture in the late 1990s, it brought to the fore the idea that it is as important to improve one's own sense of emotional well-being as it is to manage depression and anxiety. Cultural historian Daniel Horowitz's research reveals that this change happened in the context of key events. World War II, the Holocaust, post-war prosperity, the rise of counter-culture, the crises of the 1970s, the presidency of Ronald Reagan, and the prime ministerships of Margaret Thatcher and David Cameron provided the important forces shaping the development of the field today known as positive psychology. Happier? provides the first history of the origins, development, and impact of the way Americans - and now many around the world - shifted from mental illness to well-being as they pondered the human condition.^

This change, which came about from the fusing of knowledge drawn from Eastern spiritual traditions, behavioral economics, neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and cognitive psychology, has been led by popularizers, scholars, and academic entrepreneurs, as they wrestled with the implications of political events and forces such as neoliberalism and cultural conservatism, and a public eager for self-improvement. Linking the development of happiness studies and positive psychology with a broad series of social changes, including the emergence of new media and technologies like TED talks, blogs, web sites, and neuroscience, as well as the role of evangelical ministers, Oprah Winfrey's enterprises, and funding from government agencies and private foundations, Horowitz highlights the transfer of specialized knowledge into popular arenas. Along the way he shows how marketing triumphed, transforming academic disciplines and spirituality into saleable products.^

Ultimately, Happier? illuminates how positive psychology, one of the most influential academic fields of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, infused American culture with captivating promises for a happier society. -- from dust jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: From helplessness to optimism: Martin Seligman and the development of positive psychology; title: Misery and pleasure in the origins of happiness studies, 1945-70; title: Crisis of confidence? 1970-83: providing the groundwork for the study of positive happiness; title: Morning in America, 1984-98: assembling key elements in the study of happiness and positivity; title: Drawing (and crossing) the line: academic and popular renditions of subjective well-being, 1984-98; title: Building a positively happy world view; title: The future in here: positive psychology comes of age; title: The business of happiness.