Tag Archives: Jules Evans

On The Happiness Experiment bookshelf: my 20 favourite books from 2012

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It’s the time of year when Best of… lists proliferate, so not to be outdone I have decided to create my own.  This is a very personal list of books which have helped me on my happiness journey, the majority of the books were newly published this year but some were just new to me.  I have listed them in no particular order of preference as I think all are of merit and it would be difficult to choose one over another.  It is very difficult to narrow the list down to just 20 as there are many more I could have included, but in the true spirit of Best of… list making I have been strict with myself.  Please let me know if there are any wonderful new books which have escaped my attention and which you think I should have included on this list.  Which books would your top 20 include?

1. Quiet: the power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking by Susan Cain

Susan Cain’s TED talk entitled The Power of Introverts and her book Quiet have taken the world by storm in 2012 becoming an international best seller and voted No 1 on the list of best business books by Fast Company.

“Any time people come together in a meeting, we’re not necessarily getting the best ideas, we’re just getting the ideas of the best talkers.”

Watch Susan’s TED talk below and check out her website here.

2. Daring Greatly by Brené Brown

516M7xIqUvL. BO2204203200 PIsitb sticker arrow clickTopRight35 76 AA300 SH20 OU01 You Can Approach Life With Both Fierceness and Grace: An Interview with Brene Brown

I was fortunate to attend the UK launch event for Brené Brown’s latest book Daring Greatly which was organised by The School of Life at Conway Hall in London.  The book is a fascinating follow on to her work on vulnerability and Brené was just as inspiring in person as she appeared in her now famous TED talks.  If you would like to learn more about Brené Brown’s research you can check out her website here.

Brené Brown talking about her new book Daring Greatly

3. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do, and How to Change by Charles Duhigg

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do, and How to Change [Book]

This is a fascinating book on how to change habits. Many books have been written on this subject but this is one of the best ones I have read.  You can watch Charles being interviewed about his book here:

Charles Duhigg being interviewed by Jonathan Fields

4. How to change the world by John-Paul Flintoff

How to Change the World

One of my favourite quotes (you may be aware by now that I am a bit of a quote geek) is this one:

“In the power to change yourself is the power to change the world around you.” Anwar Sadat.

This very readable book by John-Paul Flintoff shows you how to do both by helping you to avoid sinking in overwhelm and to think of small practical changes you can implement to make the world a better place. Below is a short video clip in which John-Paul talks about his book.  If you would like to watch the full length video from The School of Life click here.

 

5. Flex: do something different by Karen J. Pine and Ben C. Fletcher

I attended the Meaning conference in Brighton this year and one of the speakers was psychologist Karen Pine who co-wrote Flex with her husband Ben Fletcher. Flex is a really interesting read and contains many innovative ideas for changing behaviour. You can  watch Karen’s talk here:

 

6. Rainy Brain, Sunny Brain: The New Science of Optimism and Pessimism by Elaine Fox

Product Details

It has always fascinated me why some people appear to be incurable optimists no matter what life throws at them whilst some are hardened pessimists despite the many positive things in their life.  Elaine Fox‘s book Rainy Brain, Sunny Brain gives a fascinating scientific explanatation for our differences in outlook and illustrates how we can change our disposition.

Elaine Fox talking about her research.

7. Philosophy for life by Jules Evans

This book Philosophy for Life is a brilliant introduction to how philosophy can improve our lives and has convinced me that philosophy needs to be part of our happiness toolkit. It has been no 1 in Amazon.co.uk’s philosophy chart, a Guardian Books bestseller and has been published in 15 countries.  Even if you think that philosophy is not your bag I urge you to try it.

 

8. Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance by Jonathan Fields

I have recently become a huge fan of Jonathan Field’s blog and in particular of his Good Life Project website in which he conducts interviews with some remarkable people.  The video below features Jonathan Fields talking about his book Uncertainty and how he gave up a corporate career as a lawyer to set up a yoga studio, signing a lease in New York a day before the terrorist attack on the city.  Jonathan’s book explores how we deal with uncertainty and how we can learn not only to embrace it but to thrive with it – it is a fascinating read.

9. Happier at Home by Gretchen Rubin

book Happier at Home an Interview with Gretchen Rubin

Gretchen Rubin’s book The Happiness Project has become a world wide best seller.  Her follow up book Happier at Home uses the same principle of trying out a new happiness theory on a month by month basis but this time the focus is specifically on the home.  The success of Gretchen’s books are based on the fact that she is willing to put happiness theories to test and to recount her own personal experiences of what has worked for her and what hasn’t.  She does not claim that what works for her will work for everyone but her personal narrative strikes a chord with many people.

 

Gretchen Rubin: Happier at Home

 

 

10. How to Stay Sane: The School of Life by Philippa Perry

I attended a 5×15 event this year and psychotherapist Philippa Perry gave one of the talks.  She talked a lot of sense and her book How To Stay Sane does too.  If you would like to watch a video of Philippa talking at a School of Life event click here.

11. Rip It Up: The radically new approach to changing your life by Richard Wiseman

I have previously enjoyed reading and putting in to practice the teachings of Richard Wiseman’s previous books such as The Luck Factor and 59 Seconds so I was pleased when the publication of a new book was announced.  This short video introduces the “As if” principle which is covered in the book.  Rip it Up is a very entertaining and practical read with some useful tips for making changes in your life.

 

12. Screw Work Let’s Play by John Williams

Screw Work Let’s Play is a brilliant book which encourages people to take their ideas seriously and to focus on getting paid for “playing” rather than working.  Reading this book and taking part in the 30 Day Challenge which John Williams runs together with coach Selina Barker helped me to “give birth” to The Happiness Experiment blog which I have been writing since I started the challenge in May.  If you have any ideas lurking away and would like to bring them to fruition I recommend that you give this book a try.  In the video below John Williams interviews Selina Barker about her own very exciting “play project”.

 

 

13. Religion for Atheists: A non-believer’s guide to the uses of religion by Alain de Botton

Positive psychology teaches us that people who are part of religious communities are more likely to be happier than people who are not. However if you hold no particular religious belief what should you do?  Alain de Botton’s book Religion for Atheists has the answer: cherry pick the best aspects of religion and introduce them in to your life.  The RSA talk below gives you an insight in to his thinking.  It’s an interesting, well argued book and his ideas are worth considering.

 

 

14. Always Looking Up by Michael J. Fox

Michael J. Fox is one of life’s irrepressible optimists as described in Elaine Fox’s Rainy Brain, Sunny Brain.  This autobiography is a very uplifting read in which Michael J. Fox recounts why despite a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease at the very young age of 29 he thinks he is the luckiest person in the world. His interview in the video below tells you more but I urge you to buy and read his book.

 

15. World book of happiness by Leo Bormans and Miriam Akhtar

Product Details

In this book the top 100 researchers from all over the world share what they know about happiness.  This book is a great resource with articles on a broad range of happiness related topics.  The book has been sent to 52 world leaders by the head of the European Union – I hope they read it and take head.

Video of Leo Bormans giving a talk at an Action for Happiness event.  Video by Sunny Times

16. The Optimism Bias by Tali Sharot

I attended the TEDX Observer event in London this year and Tali Sharot was one of the speakers at the event.  Her book on why we are wired to look on the bright side of life makes very interesting reading.  If you would like to watch her fascinating TED talk here it is:

17. Positive Psychology (Introducing a Practical Guide) by Bridget Grenville-Cleave

This book is a really great primer in positive psychology covering 20 key concepts and with real life examples.  It is one of the best and most easily accessible introductions to positive psychology around and a very practical book.  If you would like to learn more about the author check out her website here.

18. Strengthsfinder 2.0 by Tom Rath

Learning to appreciate and work with your strengths rather than focusing primarily on your weeknesses is one of the most important lessons I have learned from positive psychology this year.  This book by Tom Rath teaches you how to recognise your strengths using a simple test online.  It is worth taking the test and the results might surprise you. The video below featuring Tom Rath is a great illustration of the strengths theory.

19. The art of non conformity – Chris Guillebeau

This book by Chris Guillebeau is basically the story of how you can choose to live exactly the life you want.  If you don’t believe this is possible read Chris’ fascinating book and be prepared to change your mind.  Watch the interview with Chris below to learn more:

Interview with Chris Guillebeau and Jonathan Fields from The Good Life project

 

20. The Bounce Back Book by Karen Salmansohn

While I was carrying out some research on resilience I came across The Bounce Back book written by Karen Salmansohn after she had been subjected to an assault.  It includes all the practical lessons she had to learn and apply in her own life to recover from her attack and is a really useful book on the subject of resilience.  Her interview with Jonathan Fields in the video below talks about the many positive psychology projects she has become involved in – her story is very inspiring.

 Karen Salmansohn interviewed by Jonathan Fields on The Good Life project.

My list could continue but I will end it here.  Please let me know if I have missed out any really great books from 2012 and I will add them to my reading list for next year. I appreciate that not everyone has the time to sit down and read these books so I have included video clips of the authors where these are available so you can learn about them at your leisure. Enjoy!

Posted by Shona Lockhart, 27th November 2012

 

 

 

 

 

Wise Wednesday – Self help shouldn’t be a dirty word

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“Formal education will make you a living, self-education will make you a fortune” Jim Rohn

I have always been a great believer in life-long education and I think that self-education is just as important if not more so than the formal education we receive in our traditional academic institutions. This self-education can take the form of participating in short courses or workshops but can also take the form of reading and putting in to practice what one has read. I would entirely agree with the quote above from Jim Rohn as I think the education you give yourself after you leave school or university is far more important than any paper qualification you may walk away with, although admittedly employers always like to see the pretty pieces of paper.  For this reason I was pleased to come across the following article by Jules Evans on his Philosphy for Life blog.  I liked the article because of its honesty and its wisdom and that for me is what Wise Wednesdays are about: taking a moment to pause and have a sensible conversation about what works and what doesn’t and removing all intellectual snobbery and politics from the debate. If the really good “self-help” books really can help people then let’s give them the credit they are due. In addition to reading the article you can take a look at the short feature on self-help in Episode 12 of the BBC Culture Show – there is a 6 minute slot on the topic starting 21 minutes into the show.  You can also take a look at Jules Evan’s own “self-help” book, though I use this term in the best possible sense, called Philosophy for Life.

I think it is hugely important to stay life curious and to not allow your learning and personal development to come to an abrupt halt the day you walk through your school or university gates for the last time.  Use this Wise Wednesday to think about which “self-help” books have taught you something valuable and have helped you to progress in life.  Do let me know your recommendations.

 

Self-help shouldn’t be a dirty word

I was at a drinks party of a history conference this week, talking to a young academic who was writing a PhD. ‘And what are you working on?’ she asked me. I said I was researching philosophy groups, and was interested in the role of support groups and self-help networks in education and health.

‘Oh’, she said, ‘well, I’m a socialist, so I don’t believe in self-help.’

Be a winner!

Her attitude is pretty much the norm among left-wing intellectuals. There is a widespread feeling, particularly among sociologists, that self-help is an ugly manifestation of neo-liberalism (see, for example, ‘The Age of Oprah: A Cultural Icon for the Neoliberal Era’). Self-help, for many on the Left, means Zig Ziglar telling you how to be a winner, or Anthony Robbins getting you to walk on coals, or Rhonda Byrne telling us we can all be rich if we just think rich thoughts. It brings to mind corporate seminars with Steve Ballmer jumping up and down like a bald gorilla, or Annette Bening desperately repeating positive affirmations in American Beauty: ‘I will sell this house. I will sell this house!’

Not only is self-help wickedly neo-liberal and individualistic, according to the intellectual consensus. It’s also stupid. The best way a book reviewer can diss a book, these days, is by calling it ‘self-help’. Naomi Wolf’s new book, Vagina, for example, has attracted incredibly vitriolic reviews, but surely the lowest blow was calling it ‘self-help marketed as feminism’. Ouch. You want to diss Malcolm Gladwell and Jonah Lehrer? Call them ‘just self-help dressed up in a lab coat’. Ohhhh SNAP! Pick up yo’ face Gladwell!

Academics would admit to reading anything, even 50 Shades of Grey, before they admitted to reading a self-help book. When the great novelist David Foster Wallace killed himself in 2008, and around 40 self-help books were discovered in his library, everyone was a bit, well…embarrassed. And when the University of Texas created an official archive of Foster Wallace’s books, the self-help titles were surreptitiously removed, like a pile of porn mags under the bed of a dead relative.

Well, it’s true, a lot of self-help is pretty awful. You can drown in all that Chicken Soup. A lot of it is badly written, full of dodgy statistics and falsely-attributed quotes (my favourite is the idea that Plato said ‘Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle’. Plato would never say that!). And some of it is a weird religion for capitalists, what C. Wright Mills called the “theology of pep”.

But that’s not the whole story with self-help. It’s just the direction self-help took in the 1980s, and unfortunately most people strongly associate the word with the Reagan era.

There is an older history of self-help – a history of mutual improvement clubs, corresponding societies, lending libraries and friendly societies. It runs through the 17th century via Protestant groups like the Quakers and Methodists, into 18th century mutual improvement clubs in London, Edinburgh, Philadelphia and beyond. It runs into the working class education movement of the 19th and 20th centuries, through Chartism, the Co-operative movement, the battle for universal suffrage (Samuel Smiles, the author of the 1859 book Self-Help, was a supporter of universal suffrage and the Co-operative movement, and his books were widely read by Labour activists at the turn of the century).

It runs through Gandhi’s theory of swaraj and the Indian self-governance movement of the 1940s, and through Malcolm X and the Black Nationalism movement of the 1960s (X declared, in his most famous speech, ‘We need a self-help program, a do it yourself philosophy, a do it right now philosophy’). It is still alive, and vibrant, in the Indian women’s self-help movement, and the UK Refugee Community Organisation (RCO) movement. It is also a huge movement in mental health, leading to life-saving organisations like Alcoholics Anonymous or Hearing Voices.

Quakers: pioneers of self-help

I feel a strong affinity to that history, partly because I come from a Quaker family, and partly because self-help helped me, when I was suffering from depression and anxiety in my early twenties. I went to two psychotherapists, both of whom cost a lot, neither of whom helped me. I then found a support group for social anxiety through the internet, and together we practiced a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy audio-course, every Thursday evening.

That helped me a lot. So did reading ancient Greek philosophy, which I discovered had been the inspiration for CBT. Over the next decade, I tracked down and interviewed many other people who had helped themselves through reading ancient philosophy – none of them were ‘intellectuals’, they were ordinary people who’d self-medicated themselves with philosophy. I called my book self-help, and I wore that badge with pride.

What appeals to me about self-help is its autonomy. I like the fact that people help themselves rather than being subjected to the theories and power structures of their ‘betters’ – whether that be psychiatrists, or academics, or Party officials. I like the fact that the advice people share comes from their first-hand personal experience rather than academic theory. I like the democracy of it, the lack of hierarchy, the egalitarianism. I think this, secretly, is why some academics look down their nose at self-help: because it challenges their intellectual authority, their expertise, their Mandarin status.

At this point I can hear left-wing sociologists (and Adam Curtis) saying ‘That’s the whole problem with self-help – this naive belief you can somehow liberate the self from power structures. Haven’t you read Foucault?’ Sure, I’ve read Foucault. In particular, I’ve read the last writings of Foucault (see the second half of this collection, for example), where he expresses regret for focusing too much on the individual as passive victim of social domination, and he begins to explore how individuals can actively take care of themselves and learn to govern themselves “with a minimum of domination”. Foucault, by the end of his life, was celebrating self-help.

But I’m aware that one can take this sort of self-reliant philosophy too far. It can be too individualistic. It can put too much emphasis on the superhuman individual conquering all circumstances. I think this critique can be directed at both Pierre Hadot and Foucault – they concentrated too much on individual spiritual exercises in Greek philosophy, and missed the communal aspect. As I put it in my book, “the Greeks knew that the best way to change yourself is together with other people”.

That’s why I’m increasingly interested in self-help communities, in mutual improvement. I’ve moved, personally, from quite a Stoic-libertarian philosophy to a more communal philosophy – I suppose it’s more Christian, in the sense that it’s grounded in a recognition that life is difficult for everybody and we all need to help each other (not that I’m a Christian).

Left-wing intellectuals love to sneer at initiatives like the School of Life

I’m interested in experiments in communal self-help like the School of Life, which the intellectual Left loves to sneer at. But what outreach has the London Review of Books done recently, or the New Left Review, or Verso Books? When did the Left stop caring about adult education? (One possible answer: when Perry Anderson took over editing the New Left Review from EP Thompson in 1962, and the intellectual Left became totally entranced by continental philosophy and contemptuous of the British mutual improvement clubs that Thompson so admired).

Yes, the mutual improvement ethos can also be taken too far. It can be used as an excuse by libertarians for cutting public services, for closing libraries and hospitals, for dismantling comprehensive schools, for rolling back all the gains that the labour movement achieved since it first came to power in the UK in 1924.

But self-help groups aren’t inherently libertarian, or laissez-faire capitalist. Support groups can really help people to get better. Self-help books can really help people (the best ones can, anyway). They can empower the vulnerable and relieve human suffering. And they can also work very well in partnership with public services, rather than as a rival.

So the next time someone disses a book as ‘just self-help’, say to them, ‘what do you mean…just?’

If you want to find out more about this older tradition of self-help, I recommend Jonathan Rose’s The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes, Brian Graham’s Nineteenth Century Self-Help In Education, or EP Thompson’s Making of the English Working Class. 

Original article published by Jules Evans on the Philosophy for Life blog on 14th September 2012

Posted by Shona Lockhart, 10th October 2012

 

 

Wise Wednesdays – A morality tale from a tabloid hack

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Today’s Wise Wednesday feature is written by Jules Evans, policy director at the Centre for the History of Emotions at Queen Mary, University of London. Jules is also a journalist and author of the book Philosophy for Life and Other Dangerous Situations and he is co-organiser of The London Philosophy Club.

This interview, which Jules Evans conducted with tabloid hack Graham Johnson, recounts how even a hardened hack is capable of shifting his mindset and finding a new route to happiness and fulfillment.  Johnson’s initiation into a new way of thinking began through reading Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton which has been featured in several of our blog posts.  Jules Evans goes on to recount how further discoveries of the teachings of ancient philosophers gradually encouraged Graham Johnson to re-examine his values and to adopt a radically new approach to journalism.  Enjoy the article.

A tabloid hack learns morality from the wisdom of ancient philosophers

Tabloid hack: Stoicism saved me from moral turmoil!!

It’s an interview I did this morning with Graham Johnson, who was a senior tabloid journalist at the News of the World and then head of undercover investigations at the Sunday Mirror. As you all know, British tabloid journalism is in a moral crisis at the moment,  thanks to the Leveson Inquiry’s endless revelations of immoral, illegal and negligent behaviour by hacks, editors and newspaper owners.

Graham, who in recent weeks has spoken out publicly against the toxic culture in tabloids, gave me a vivid inside view of newsroom vice, and how he feels his life was ‘saved’ by coming across ancient Greek philosophy five years ago. He heard about my book and got in touch via Twitter.

Here’s Graham in his own words (well, my transcript of the interview):

I joined journalism in 1994, did two years on the News of the World and eight years at the Sunday Mirror. For most of that, I was investigations editor, mainly doing undercover work on things like drug dealing, gun running, prostitution. I also did a fair amount of celebrity expose work. Rebekah Brooks might say she’s proud of campaigns like Sarah’s Law, but most of the campaigns the News of the World did weren’t for the common good, they were for the good of the News of the World.

A tabloid newsroom thrives on the vices and passions of others, and it fosters them in yourself too: greed, lust, deception, anger, fear. I instinctively knew I was doing wrong things, but I didn’t care. You don’t reflect on it – you’re moving too fast and living too extremely.  I hired private detectives to get illegal data, I lied, deceived, blackmailed people, basically giving them the shakedown for information. For example, you’d get evidence of a celebrity doing cocaine and having an affair, and you tell them: ‘either cooperate with us and give us a confession, or we’ll run the story anyway’. You’d see celebrities at their weakest – people would break down, some people even had nervous breakdowns. But you got de-sensitised to it. You start to think you’re all powerful and can manipulate people to do anything.

 

Graham Johnson

I remember one story with Steve McManaman, the England and Liverpool football player, whose mum had cancer. The News of the World were only interested in getting the story, ‘my cancer hell by Steve McManaman’. But we didn’t have the full medical records, so we needed to get Steve to admit his mother had cancer. I had to go and lean on him, in his own home, and say we’ll run this story anyway but it would  be better for him if he cooperated. He was desperately trying to convince me not to run the story. He even brought his mother in to try and show that she was fine and didn’t have cancer. It reminded me of people in a concentration camp rubbing blood into their cheeks to try and make themselves look healthy.

I also bought the video tapes of Wayne Rooney in a brothel, for £200K. I knew it could destroy his career and his engagement to Coleen, but I didn’t care. You don’t even try to justify it to yourself morally, as being in ‘the public interest’. It’s all about winning status inside the newsroom. It’s like a stock exchange, with your credit constantly rising or falling. If you win a big story, you get praised by the editor and for a few days your stock is up. But if you don’t get another big story, then quickly you get shouted at and called a dickhead by the editor. It’s a bullying culture. And it’s fiercely competitive. There’s a lot of simmering resentment of each other in the newsroom.

It’s such an extreme environment, and it fosters extreme behaviour. You do whatever it takes to get the story, to get on the front-page. And people adopted extreme coping strategies to stop themselves thinking about how they’re living. A lot of tabloid hacks would do cocaine, or drink a lot, or get pleasure in extreme ways. I remember one editor sitting on the toilet smoking crack cocaine on deadline. The Priory rehab centre was full of burnt-out tabloid journalists.

By 2007, I was exhausted. I was like a soldier with a thousand-yard stare, like a hunted animal. It was almost like I had Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, it was such an extreme environment. I went on holiday to France with my partner and four kids. I think I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I pulled a book off the shelf, called Status Anxiety, by Alain de Botton, and read it in two days. After that I read his Consolations of Philosophy, then I read all the ancient philosophy I could find: Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, Seneca’s Essays, Epictetus’ Discourses.

They introduced me to the idea of the virtues – kindness, patience, justice and so on. I’d never come across them before. I don’t remember being given any ethical training as a young journalist – if I was I quickly abandoned it. But now I realised how important values were, simply for my sanity. For example, I realised the wisdom of not linking my status to the stock exchange of winning stories, because then it was linked to something out of my control and would always be volatile.

I also learnt to be more patient, not to get drawn into petty disputes. Patience in tabloid journalism is a total vice. Tabloid journalism is all about being impatient. But philosophy helped me in that very angry, competitive environment of the newsroom. So if someone started an argument, or if a company didn’t pay me on time, I don’t let myself get drawn in, I remind myself that I’ll be dead one day and it’s not worth it. I also don’t tell lies any more. I used to lie all the time. And it’s a relief, not to lie anymore, not to have to tap-dance between the raindrops and try to remember what you said to whom. I’m also more conscious of justice – if I’m working on a story and a person said to me ‘if you write that it would ruin my life’, I’ll back off.

I think more about what’s the right thing to do, and try to come to a wise decision. I might be asked to break the law, by paying a criminal for example. But that might be the right thing to do, morally. If I’m getting information from an ex-criminal, and I’m getting paid and my team are getting paid, why shouldn’t the ex-criminal get paid too.

It’s made me a better journalist than ever. I earn more than I used to, not that it’s the reason I do it. But I also pick my stories more carefully now.

So how, I asked Graham, could journalism be improved? How could we enhance the ‘moral education’ of journalists?

I was on a panel recently with Tom Watson, and I said that there needs to be more values education and moral training for trainee journalists. It needs to be drummed into you what the virtues are. And people need to be shown that the good life isn’t just virtuous, it’s good for your sanity. According to Stoicism, the good life is only down to you, but I think you also need good leaders too, like Marcus Aurelius. People take note of what’s around them and how their leaders behave. It might help also to have a compliance officer, like a moral guardian, actually within the newsroom. Or a media ethics committee within newspapers.

I think Graham would be a fantastic values teacher for the next generation of young journalists, and wish him all the best in his work. His book about his experience in tabloid journalism is called Hack, published in May by Simon & Schuster. I know other tabloid journalists who are into philosophy – some enlightened soul at The Sun keeps putting quotes from Epictetus and the Dalai Lama into the made-up interviews with the Page 3 girls!

If you enjoy this sort of real-life story of how people have been helped today by ancient philosophy, then you’ll love my new book, Philosophy for Life and Other Dangerous Situations.

Do you have an interesting story about how you got into philosophy and how it helped you?  Send your story to Jules Evans via the website Philosophy for Life.

Posted 27th June 2012.

 

Making Positive Psychology Wiser

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Making Positive Psychology Wiser

“Psychology without philosophy is blind, Philosophy without psychology is empty” (James Hume)

There’s a possibility that the 21st century could be the century when we finally get to understand more about how to lead happier, more fulfilling lives. Compared to our ancestors of just a century ago we enjoy better health, greater material riches and have a richer understanding of psychological problems such as depression and anxiety. But are we happier or more fulfilled? Perhaps not. As the French existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre said “Everything has been figured out except how to live.”

There’s at least one reason for thinking that things might change for the better. Since 1998 American psychologist Martin Seligman has led the “Positive Psychology” movement which aims to put human well-being on a scientific footing. It has already uncovered some surprising facts , such as

  • Happier people are more creative, live longer and are more altruistic than unhappy people

  • Optimists have less heart attacks than pessimists

  • People experience more absorption and engagement (“Flow”) at work than at home

Moreover Positive Psychology has developed simple practices which are statistically proven to increase happiness for most people. One of the easiest and most effective is the “Three Good Things in Life Exercise”.

Each night for one week, write down three things that went well that day.
In addition to writing three things that went well, provide a causal explanation for each thing.
In particular, try to pay attention to how your behaviour caused the positive thing.

You might like to try it. Most people find there are lasting benefits of doing it for just one week. Governments are beginning to take notice of Positive Psychology. Whilst Bhutan, a tiny nation in the Himalayas, has been using a National Happiness Index for years, other countries such as the UK have more recently supported the idea that National Happiness should be measured. Initiatives to enable children to develop important life skills such as optimism and self-control have been piloted in schools. In addition there are many books describing scientifically supported ways you can become happier, some of which are rather good.

The idea behind Positive Psychology is important and timely. When I run workshops in Positive Psychology , most students enjoy the classes and find that practicing its ideas on themselves makes them happier. In my life coaching and psychotherapy practice I routinely incorporate Positive Psychology techniques and have found them to be a useful addition to the therapist’s toolkit.

However, much as I enthuse about Positive Psychology, I fear that unless it broadens it perspective it will not fulfill its potential to bring about a fundamental transformation in human well-being this century. I will put my cards on the table straight away. I believe that psychology needs to be combined with philosophy. Science can help us understand and reliably change the world but it cannot tell us what to change. As author Jules Evans argues, “Philosophy ungrounded in social science is a brain in a vat. But social science unguided by ethical philosophy is a chicken without a head. “

It is to ethical philosophy we must turn if we want to reason about such questions as “What is the good life?”, “What is human flourishing?” and “How important is happiness?” . A lot of books on Positive Psychology focus on happiness and how to be happier. Yet a few moments reflection is enough to convince most people that happiness isn’t all there is to a good life. Would you want your tombstone just to say that you were happy? Many people agree with psychologist Joseph Ciarrochi who says:

” I think I want my tombstone to say something about me being a loving father, caring husband and someone who sought to improve this human condition.  I bet you…have similar hopes and values”.

But if human flourishing isn’t just happiness, then what is it? Positive Psychology’s leading theorist, Martin Seligman, has proposed the idea that flourishing has five components, captured by the acronym PERMA, meaning:

  • Pleasure
  • Engagement
  • Relationships
  • Meaning &
  • Acheivement
Unfortunately Seligman’s theory raises more questions than it answers. For example:
  • What is the best balance of these five values in a good life?
  • Are there other important values (such as health, autonomy and  wisdom) missing from this list?
  • To lead a good life do you have to actually have these values satisfied, or do you just have to think you have?

  • Is wisdom, the ability to make ethical choices in the face of complex practical and emotional situations, a particularly important value?

These are all good questions. The answers implied by Seligman ( “Don’t know”, “No”, “You just have to think you have them satisfied” and “Wisdom is just one of 24 strengths and you should focus on it only if it is one of your strengths”) are not very satisfactory.

These are not technical quibbles, these are fundamental issues. If Positive Psychology is going to guide us in our personal lives and public policy, it needs to have a solid conceptual basis. We need to be able to trust it. Yet Seligman himself has admitted that Osama Bin Laden could well have lived a PERMA life. Since PERMA is measured by the subject’s own estimate (see question 3 above) every psychopath, terrorist and criminal could be rated to have good lives according to positive psychology. Worse still, positive psychology’s methods could actually make them worse. Would you prefer your local criminals to be more or less motivated, more or less optimistic? Like nuclear fission, Positive Psychology’s tools can be used in the pursuit of good and evil..

The idea that you should transform human well-being without doing philosophy as well as psychology is too narrow. But Seligman’s own model of Positive Psychology also runs into more specific problems because it ignores key ideas commonplace to philosophers but less obvious to psychologists. Central to Seligman’s theory is the idea that we should all be more aware of our character strengths and use our strengths more often. But should we? Imagine that your next door neighbour, Fred has optimism as his top strength. Positive Psychology tells him to be optimistic in new situations. Suppose Fred’s optimism has so far worked very well for him at home, where his encouragement and positivity are greatly appreciated by his family. After reading Seligman, Fred decides to be more optimistic at work as well. Now cut to the day of your holiday. Unfortunately it’s extremely foggy. You arrive at the airport expecting a long delay to your flight. You are surprised to hear a familiar “How is it going?” from Fred, your optimistic neighbour, who – I forgot to mention – is an airline pilot and is due to fly your plane. “How long will the delay be?” you ask him anxiously. “No delay at all!”, he replies cheerily. “Today I’m going to practice my optimism strength a bit more. Air Traffic Control say we should wait an hour for the fog to clear, but the good news is I’m an optimist so I’m going to ignore them.”? The problem with Seligman’s strengths theory is we have to judge when and where to apply our strengths. Fred needs what philosophers have long recognised to be a key virtue – wisdom.

Many centuries ago, Plato, Aristotle and other ancient philosophers argued that wisdom was in fact the most important thing you need to live well. Without wisdom, all the other things in life could be misused. Money, good looks and health may seem to be good things, but to live well you have to know how to use them wisely. In our example, Fred’s lack of practical wisdom will him lead to use his optimism strength rashly. One of the most influential philosophers on the subject, Aristotle, argued that a wise choice involves choosing the golden mean between two extremes. Fred needs to find the golden mean between optimism and pessimism . In this situation, since there is so much to lose, he should err on the side of pessimism.
What can be done? Positive Psychology has great potential, but for it to be fulfilled it needs to take on a more philosophical perspective. My hope is that more philosophers become involved in Positive Psychology and more psychologists become involved in Practical Philosophy.. I would like them to work together to develop a multi-disciplinary approach to the question of how to increase well- being.

In the meantime, I suggest the interested reader combine their study of positive psychology with practical philosophy. A good place to start are two excellent recent books

Jules Evans’ Philosophy For Life and Other Dangerous Situations

Julian Baggini & Antonia Macaro’s The Shrink and the Sage.

I also would like to invite interested parties to contact me to help develop a more philosophical type of Positive Psychology. It’s a project I’ve already begun, and I will leave you with one – so far untested – practice, a philosophical version of Three Good Things, which I call “Three Wise Things.”

Each night  for one week, write down three ways in which you or someone you know acted wisely that day. The things don’t have exhibit the wisdom of King Solomon – they just have to be things where someone showed good judgement.
In addition to writing down three wise things, write down what made these actions wise?

Live happily and wisely

Tim LeBon

http://www.timlebon.com