[HN Gopher] A proposal to classify happiness as a psychiatric di...
___________________________________________________________________
A proposal to classify happiness as a psychiatric disorder (1992)
Author : wjSgoWPm5bWAhXB
Score : 168 points
Date : 2026-03-17 13:03 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
(TXT) w3m dump (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
| AnimalMuppet wrote:
| <checks calendar> Wait, this _isn 't_ April 1st!
|
| Seriously, _happiness_ is a psychiatric disorder? Rare, sure, but
| a _disorder_? That 's the craziest thing I've heard since...
| well, since the Iran war, I guess, so not very long. Still,
| that's nuts. I cannot imagine the world view that it must take to
| look at happiness that way.
| boesboes wrote:
| It's more of a comment on the absurdity of what is and is not
| defined as a disorder i believe.
| techblueberry wrote:
| Ahh 1992. At the time he probably didn't know he needed to add a
| /s or he'd be taken seriously in our delusional future.
| dullcrisp wrote:
| Or was the nineties, so it would have been a "not!" or a
| "psych!"
| lo_zamoyski wrote:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhIdbRp6xeg
| genthree wrote:
| "... on Opposite Day!"
| dmschulman wrote:
| Woosh
| kusokurae wrote:
| Reminded of that episode of House where the lady with dormant
| syphillis had something like this.
|
| I wonder are there any ways I can contract this without breaking
| marital vows
| letharion wrote:
| I'm assuming this is some kind of jab at the general propensity
| of psychiatry to classify most things as disorders, rather than a
| serious proposal. If anything, I think the problem has gotten
| worse since this was published. (Then again, maybe happiness has
| also gotten more rare since 1992?)
| thomascgalvin wrote:
| I had to check if it was April Fool's Day
| kevin_thibedeau wrote:
| We went from 3% on anti-depressants in 1992 to 13%. Lots more
| are trying to induce happiness without an external change of
| circumstance or internal perspective.
| adyashakti wrote:
| it's Catch-22. the world is such a mess that if you're happy, you
| must be delusional.
| ranger_danger wrote:
| hard disagree. I think you can be happy about some things and
| not about others, and it's not so black-and-white.
| nickburns wrote:
| Replace 'happy' with 'neurotic' and you got it!
| NoMoreNicksLeft wrote:
| I'm not the world, I just live in it. It might be a mess, but
| that mess mostly doesn't affect me. The few ways in which it
| does can be effectively mitigated by anyone who puts in even
| the tiniest bit of effort.
|
| For that matter, nothing much stops me from carving out my own
| little world where I can clean up what mess it is, and live
| there. But to do that I'd have to admit to myself that I can't
| change the greater world and even acknowledge that there's no
| real point in wanting that other than to chase high status
| among our monkey tribe.
| ranger_danger wrote:
| > But to do that I'd have to admit to myself that I can't
| change the greater world
|
| Do you though? Can't we believe that change is possible, but
| also choose not to act on it? Not saying that's right or
| wrong, just that it's possible.
| eouw0o83hf wrote:
| I really liked this paper. I think it's less of an outright joke
| that it's possible to squint your eyes and laugh that happiness
| could be a disorder, and more of shining a light on the
| psychopathological system that tends towards over-diagnosis and
| hyperfixation on those diagnoses.
|
| "If our so-called scientific system were really objective and
| honest, it would include happiness as a disorder." I think this
| is the goal the paper is trying to expose, more than just making
| a joke about mapping a good feeling to a description of a bad
| feeling. Indeed, I think the last line of the paper gives it away
| - our current system is very incomplete and needs to be extended:
|
| > Indeed, only a psychopathology that openly declares the
| relevance of values to classification could persist in excluding
| happiness from the psychiatric disorders.
| lo_zamoyski wrote:
| What it exposes is that there are underlying methodological
| presuppositions that are hazardous.
|
| If statistical frequency is our ultimate basis for normative
| behavior, then things like happiness can be pathologized. This
| is absurd, which means normativity cannot be decided by
| ubiquity or popular vote. You have to look to the objective
| nature of the thing.
|
| This is another case where materialism utterly flops, because
| materialistic ontology - one that reduces all of reality to
| Cartesian _res extensa_ - cannot account for the normative _at
| all_ (among other things).
| boesboes wrote:
| Reminds me of https://thenewinquiry.com/book-of-lamentations/
| edit: A review of the DSM as if it where a dystopian novel
| basically, makes some interesting observations/points
| pogue wrote:
| This reminds me of this old gem from The Onion:
|
| _FDA Approves Depressant Drug For The Annoyingly Cheerful_
| [video /NSFW/2:06] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd4tugPM83c
| erikerikson wrote:
| A similarly useful article:
|
| _More U.S. Children Being Diagnosed With Youthful Tendency
| Disorder_ https://theonion.com/more-u-s-children-being-
| diagnosed-with-...
| bensyverson wrote:
| Ha, this is fun. But there's a kernel of truth to it. The problem
| with American culture specifically is that it treats "happiness"
| as a goal, rather than a fleeting feeling that is probably better
| described with a more specific word (joy, accomplishment,
| excitement, satisfaction, contentment). Our culture leans on this
| so hard that people start to think there's something wrong with
| _them_ if they 're not feeling generalized happiness most of the
| time.
|
| That's just not how life works.
| joshmarlow wrote:
| A few years ago I read a claim that the word 'happy' is
| relatively young - ~500 years old - and that translations of
| others words into 'happy' are somewhat approximate.
|
| My takeaway is that (presuming the argument is correct) that
| much of human striving is probably better described with
| specific words (as you suggested - joy, accomplishment,
| fulfillment, excitement, etc). For most of human history, most
| people probably didn't think "I want to be happy" but "I want
| to have a good partner", "I want a big family", "I want my crop
| to grow so I don't die."
|
| I wonder how much unhappiness is caused by seeking a poorly-
| defined ideal of happiness.
|
| The book was called "Power, Pleasure, and Profit: Insatiable
| Appetites from Machiavelli to Madison".
| bensyverson wrote:
| Oh, absolutely. 99.999% of human history has been "just want
| to survive another year."
|
| Russ Harris has a great book about this called _The Happiness
| Trap_ [0], which is an introduction to ACT (Acceptance and
| Commitment Therapy)
|
| [0]: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/76053/the-
| happiness...
| tim333 wrote:
| Dunno. Traveling to less developed places parents still
| want the kids to be happy for a start. It's surprising in
| places without roads, internet, phones etc. how normal
| everything is.
| bensyverson wrote:
| It's normal for parents to want their kids to be happy...
| it's less normal for those kids to be "happy" all the
| time.
| dharmach wrote:
| Just because the word 'happy' is relatively young in the
| English/European language, a conclusion can not be made for
| the whole Humankind.
| joshmarlow wrote:
| Very true - which is why this piece "that translations of
| others words into 'happy' are somewhat approximate." would
| be very interesting if accurate.
| throw0101d wrote:
| > _My takeaway is that (presuming the argument is correct)
| that much of human striving is probably better described with
| specific words (as you suggested - joy, accomplishment,
| fulfillment, excitement, etc)._
|
| All those four words combined is something like the concept
| of _eudaimonia_ that Aristotle describes in his _Nicomachean
| Ethics_ :
|
| * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eudaimonia
|
| * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flourishing
| joshmarlow wrote:
| I've not read Aristotle directly but translating eudaimonia
| was an example in the book that I mentioned. The argument
| was that eudaimonia is often translated as happiness but
| that doesn't make sense in contexts where we talk about a
| soldier dying experiencing eudaimonia (suggesting a loose
| translation).
| limagnolia wrote:
| You don't think it possible for some one to die happy?
| Brian_K_White wrote:
| No. It's certainly not a goal. And even if it can somehow
| happen, soneone could be resigned or drugged, it's
| different from something like "happy to die".
|
| This question itself seems to be a perfect example of the
| point that the word is worse than meaningless. Worse
| because people use it like it has a useful meaning.
|
| One can die in a state that has a lot of the qualities or
| features that overlap with other states that people call
| happy, but that doesn't make them equal or equivalent.
| limagnolia wrote:
| What is your definition of happy?
| hn92726819 wrote:
| What emotion must people be feeling when they die then?
|
| > the word is worse than meaningless
|
| It seems as though you are redefining it to be
| meaningless, then projecting that onto everyone else. Is
| it not curious to you that everyone else takes no issue
| with its usage?
| NoMoreNicksLeft wrote:
| Thanks for the book recommendation.
| dotancohen wrote:
| The word shmkhh and conjugations appear in the Bible about
| 200 times, so we have a good idea of what it means in
| context. It means exactly what I perceive the noun Happiness
| and the adjective Happy to mean in English.
| joshmarlow wrote:
| That's very interesting and is good evidence against the
| thesis - thanks for sharing!
| variaga wrote:
| "Happiness comes in small doses folks. It's a cigarette butt,
| or a chocolate chip cookie or a five second orgasm. You come,
| you smoke the butt you eat the cookie you go to sleep wake up
| and go back to f---ing work the next morning, THAT'S IT! End of
| f---ing list!"
|
| -Dennis Leary
| asah wrote:
| +1 - https://www.google.com/search?q=every+brilliant+thing
| asah wrote:
| happiness <> euphoria
| randallsquared wrote:
| Indeed. This just illustrates Goodhart's Law.
| gotwaz wrote:
| More like modern marketing depts and marketing theory leaning
| on it. They have replaced what religions used to offer when
| people asked about purpose, meaning, transcendence or what is
| the point of my story? Just telling people this is all just
| some biology and chemistry doesnt really answer questions about
| meaning. They will start searching for meaning elsewhere and
| marketing depts of corporate wonderland step in to fill the
| void.
| fwipsy wrote:
| I suspect you would agree with this:
| https://theoatmeal.com/comics/unhappy
|
| Even if feelings are temporary you can still have them more or
| less often. When somebody says they are happy, of course it
| does not mean they are experiencing bliss all the time; it
| means that the relative frequency of positive emotions is high
| and the relative frequency of negative emotions is low.
|
| I think a lot of people assume it's not possible to be happy
| because their life circumstances are incompatible with it and
| they can't or won't change those circumstances. I think in the
| US at least, the things we want most and the things we strive
| for are not things that make us happy.
| cortesoft wrote:
| I have often felt conflicted about happiness and what we
| should strive for in our lives.
|
| It is true that most people seem to think happiness is the
| ultimate goal for life. They say they just want to be happy,
| that they just want their kids to be happy. Often times,
| though, it seems almost circular in logic; any time you
| pushback against the idea of happiness or why being happy all
| the time isn't always good, people will just say "oh, that
| isn't REAL happiness" or "that actually is happiness!"
|
| Often this is when I bring up hedonism and say, "well, if
| pure happiness is all that matters, why don't we all just do
| heroin all the time? You will feel great!" Of course, they
| will say "well the high can't last forever and eventually
| your life will suck and that is why it isn't real happiness.
|
| I think it is more than that, though. Imagine you could feel
| the best feeling you have had all the time, just sitting
| there. You could just lean back and feel good for as long as
| you want. Would you want that?
|
| I think most people wouldn't, and not just because we don't
| think it is possible. It is more than that. We want to do
| hard things that make us work and that hurt a bit and
| frustrate us, because there is a sense of satisfaction when
| you persevere. We need to feel pain and sadness, to feel the
| fullest connection with others through the full range of
| emotions.
|
| It is not easy to articulate exactly what we want, but it
| isn't simply happiness.
| thewebguyd wrote:
| > I have often felt conflicted about happiness and what we
| should strive for in our lives.
|
| It's the striving itself that is the source of our
| suffering & dissatisfaction
|
| The reason its hard to articulate what we want is we are
| conditioned to think of our life as a series of targets to
| hit, but that striving is where we suffer. Maybe you target
| wealth, then you look for happiness, then you look for
| meaning, and it doesn't end.
|
| Life is like a fire, you don't ask the fire what its goal
| is.
|
| > We want to do hard things that make us work and that hurt
| a bit and frustrate us, because there is a sense of
| satisfaction when you persevere.
|
| Even with this, making satisfaction the goal will turn it
| into another struggle or commodity to be consumed. We like
| hard things because the intensity forces us to be present.
| The striving mind stops worrying about the future or the
| past and you are fully present with the task at hand.
|
| Once you can get out of the way of yourself, you realize we
| don't actually want a better experience, we just want to
| stop being distracted from the one we're already having.
| bensyverson wrote:
| > It's the striving itself that is the source of our
| suffering & dissatisfaction
|
| thewebguyd out here laying down some Noble Truths!
| fwipsy wrote:
| Happiness doesn't have to be the only goal to be
| worthwhile. Of course people don't want to live in fake
| bliss. Happiness is a vague term for many specific
| emotions; the sense of satisfaction from overcoming a
| difficult challenge is a form of happiness, or contributes
| to happiness.
| Aurornis wrote:
| > Our culture leans on this so hard that people start to think
| there's something wrong with them if they're not feeling
| generalized happiness most of the time.
|
| I don't think this is true, unless you're using 'happiness' to
| refer to euphoria or acute joy.
|
| The happiness that is generally sought is more accurately
| described as a general lack of sadness or despair. Having a
| roof over your head, food on the table, a job to go to, decent
| health, and friends and family is what constitutes basic
| happiness. That is a good goal to work toward, in my opinion.
| alansaber wrote:
| It's a balancing act no? Generally you certainly want to
| optimise to minimise unhappiness but not to the point of
| avoiding conflict/difficulty.
| wang_li wrote:
| Trying to distinguish happiness from all those other feelings
| is like trying to separate depressed from all the negative
| things you feel during a day. Some words do not describe
| specific emotions, but instead indicate a general state which
| has all kinds of internal variation and magnitudes. A person
| who doesn't have much financial stress, their kid isn't having
| issues that require lots of problem solving from the parent,
| their job is fine, they are not arguing with their spouse
| regularly. They would say they are happy. Alternately one can
| have accomplishments , new PR at the gym, solved an issue at
| work, but still think of themselves as unhappy because they
| have things that they prioritize more highly that are not going
| well.
| dataviz1000 wrote:
| "For truly to enjoy bodily warmth, some small part of you must
| be cold, for there is no quality in this world that is not what
| it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself." -- Herman
| Melville.
|
| He describing to enjoy the warmth of blankets on a freezing
| winter night, it is imperative the nose be exposed to the cold
| likely as a metaphor to enjoy "happiness" something is needed
| for contrast.
| setsewerd wrote:
| It's always fascinating to see how fundamental concepts of
| Buddhist teachings appear in different names, forms, and
| metaphors across cultures.
|
| Dependent origination: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prat%C4%
| ABtyasamutp%C4%81da?wp...
|
| While some ideas are more obvious than others I always wonder
| whether the same insights occurred independently (of each
| other -- excuse the poor choice of words), or if the ideas
| can all trace their roots back to the same teachings.
| dataviz1000 wrote:
| > I always wonder whether the same insights occurred
| independently
|
| No. Authors, Henry David Thoreau in 1854 and here Melville
| in 1851, and others at the time in that region were very
| heavily influenced by Hindu scriptures especially the
| Bhagavad Gita. Hindu mythology was mentioned several times
| in Moby Dick including referring to the whale as the Fish
| Incarnation of Vishnu.
| mikkupikku wrote:
| I love that part of Moby Dick, it's so perfectly true. I
| always sleep with my feet sticking out for this reason.
| m463 wrote:
| You could also say the same general thing for being goal-
| oriented instead of process-oriented for anything else.
| fsckboy wrote:
| you can't experience Latino culture without thinking that they
| treat happiness as a goal, it's sort of like you're applying a
| Germanic/Protestant/Puritanical filter to Americans
|
| also I don't think the more subtle distinctions between
| happiness and contentment is something people can be expected
| to maintain in their everyday speech at every moment. That's
| just not how language works.
| xg15 wrote:
| Feels to me like this is good old "if a measure becomes a
| target, it stops being a good measure".
|
| I.e. happiness is a good measure to identify other things in
| your life: If something makes you unhappy, address it, if
| something makes you happy, follow it. (Very simplified)
|
| But if you make "maximizing happiness" the direct target
| without any context, you get drugs.
| zombot wrote:
| Happiness, when pursued, does its best to escape.
| Henchman21 wrote:
| This reminds me so very much of that old American greeting:
| "Hey! How are you?" and then you don't give a shit about the
| _actual answer_ , which must always be positive.
|
| Having to explain to young children that people do this simply
| to say hello, that they aren't actually asking you your health
| or state, or anything really. Falls right in line with our need
| to smile ALL THE TIME.
|
| I stand by statements made by my European friends: Americans
| are mostly full of shit, mostly liars, and ALWAYS are trying to
| sell you something.
|
| _Are we the Baddies?_ Yes, of fucking course we are.
| jollyllama wrote:
| > The problem with American culture specifically is that it
| treats "happiness" as a goal, rather than a fleeting feeling
| that is probably better described with a more specific word
| (joy, accomplishment, excitement, satisfaction, contentment).
|
| Does it really? The sentiment of your post is pretty widespread
| at this point. It's kind of like saying "our culture is so
| commercialized" but everyone will tell you they're sick of
| commercialism.
| Fire-Dragon-DoL wrote:
| Interesting, I interpret happiness as that background feeling
| of overall satisfaction with my life, with ups and downs but
| the happiness is a constant.
| delichon wrote:
| I need some advice on etiquette. Is the correct answer to
| "Good morning!"
|
| still "That's what the government wants you to
| believe."
|
| or is it now "You want me to contract a
| psychiatric disorder? What did I ever do to you?"
| freedomben wrote:
| I've always loved, "what's so morning about it?"
|
| What are other people's favorite humorous responses?
| AnimalMuppet wrote:
| There's Eeyore: "If it _is_ good. Which I doubt. "
|
| But I knew a guy who didn't answer with words. He would just
| growl until he'd had coffee.
| amarant wrote:
| That sounds like me. There's a 1:1 correlation between how
| many cups of coffee I've had and the number of languages I
| speak.
|
| And like a true computer nerd, of course it's an unsigned
| integer, meaning if I drink too much coffee I'm back to
| grunting only (this time on the toilet)
| doubled112 wrote:
| Seems like you could use a few more bits.
| thewebguyd wrote:
| Always a fan of Gandalf's response to Bilbo:
|
| > "What do you mean?" he said. "Do you wish me a good
| morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it
| or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a
| morning to be good on?"
| sgbeal wrote:
| > What are other people's favorite humorous responses?
|
| "For a given definition of 'morning'."
| gabrielso wrote:
| Good news is that the government can offer free treatment.
| tss93 wrote:
| The critique feels valid to me. There's a tendency in modern
| psychology/media to pathologize the average human baseline: if
| you're not consistently optimistic and thriving, something must
| be wrong with you, or at least you need to be in a pursuit of
| this.
|
| But constant happiness isn't realistic, it's like a desire to be
| permanently high. From my own experience I've landed somewhere
| near the Buddhist framing: the healthy default is just calm and
| neutral, with happiness and sadness coming and going away.
|
| Trying to force happiness as a permanent state seems like its own
| problem, which is kind of what Bentall is pointing at from the
| other direction.
| thewebguyd wrote:
| > healthy default is just calm and neutral, with happiness and
| sadness coming and going away.
|
| This is a very healthy attitude, and people often miss it.
| Every feeling/emotion/state of mind is impermanent. It will
| come and go on its own, its biology and there's nothing you can
| do about it. It's trying to "cling" to a specific state,
| forever, that leads to our own suffering. The moment you've
| move from "I feel happy" to "I hope this lasts forever" is
| where you will suffer. Just be a witness to the coming and
| going, you witness happiness occurring, you don't become
| happiness, and its the same for other feelings and states.
| IAmBroom wrote:
| Almost as if there were some middle-path that was best...
| curiouscube wrote:
| It seems to me that you're implicitly thinking of
| happiness/sadness as zero sum. That can be very limiting.
| tss93 wrote:
| Usually I don't do math of sums, just let the happiness be
| and then fade or sadness or any other. Just grew to be ok
| with nothingness, cos I had a tendency of pushing towards
| sadness when I am not happy and then its like a pendulum and
| me riding it
| autoexec wrote:
| > There's a tendency in modern psychology/media to pathologize
| the average human baseline
|
| Is there though? I don't think modern psychology does. Where
| are these psychologists who don't think emotional ups and downs
| are a normal healthy part of life? Even in media it's often
| recognized that people being happy (or even just too tranquil)
| all the time, is wrong and creepy/unsettling. That said, it's
| absolutely true that advertisers are constantly pushing a
| narrative that you should be in an endless pursuit for what you
| don't have and that if you only buy what they want to sell you
| it will make you happier and improve your life.
| 8bitsrule wrote:
| The way to happiness is to stop chasing it.
|
| Never mind all the ads ... It isn't 'out there somewhere'.
| jongjong wrote:
| Yeah. I achieve happiness by not caring about anything too
| much. Nothing matters, ultimately. This is a universal truth.
| Once you internalize that, everything seems small. You can
| appreciate things more.
|
| These days I enjoy just having the time to stare at the clouds
| for a few hours at a time.
|
| I would honestly prefer to watch paint dry than going to work
| though.
|
| The only thing I kind of want in my life is UBI because I hate
| being forced into the rat race.
|
| I'm in a weird situation because I used to be a hustler
| software engineer/solo founder who would move countries at the
| drop of a hat (I.e. for opportunities) and I worked nights and
| weekends on side projects for like 15 years straight.
|
| But now I don't care about anything. I'm just tired of
| striving. When you waste your life in the pursuit of a goal,
| eventually you build so many negative associations that you
| eventually don't want to work for anything anymore. I only like
| free stuff now. My idea of success now is getting stuff I
| didn't earn. I optimize for minimal effort.
|
| I honestly feel more happiness when I get something for free.
| notlenin wrote:
| happiness is very linked to unexpected surprises.
|
| I personally have been experimenting what basically amounts
| to a Christian version of Bhakti Yoga [0]
|
| basically "wow, thanks God/Jesus, this is wonderful, I love
| you, you're awesome, thanks for X, Y, Z, etc". If you can
| stay in that mood of gratitude and occasionally add in a lil
| "and if I could get an A or B that would be great, but no
| worries if not", and... in my belief system/experience, the
| desired outcome happens somewhat effortlessly :)
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhakti_yoga
| iberator wrote:
| Overall happinesses and motivation and belief are signs of too
| high level dopamine.
|
| Most business owner people have it. That's why they are often out
| of touch with random Joe.
|
| They belive in success even if math is saying that's bias.
|
| Form of pychosis
| stevedonovan wrote:
| Hypomania is very irritating, and can actually mess up a
| person's life. It's a neurotic defense mechanism that's
| opposite to depression
| thewebguyd wrote:
| Yes. Too much of any particular state of mind can be bad.
|
| The best is to cultivate a state of equanimity. Stop grasping
| at both good and bad states.
| skeledrew wrote:
| "You look happy. What's wrong?" Ultimate conversation starter.
| emsign wrote:
| If you are too happy to work, you are sick. Makes sense.
| rglover wrote:
| "It's so, so sad, to be happy all the time." -
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzZPxUiAKTo
| jayd16 wrote:
| I think the DSM 5 says a disorder must cause clinically
| significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or
| other important areas of functioning.
| thewebguyd wrote:
| Correct. But even that definition risks over pathologizing the
| human experience. It creates a distinction between a broken
| brain and a reasonable reaction to a broken environment.
|
| DSM defines a disorder by how well an individual fits into the
| current economic and social system. Technically, if someone is
| so blissfully happy they stop showing up to their job, they
| would actually meet the criteria for a disorder.
|
| Just like if someone lives in a high-crime area with little
| security they may have crippling anxiety. DSM would say they
| have a generalized anxiety disorder, but I would argue they
| don't, they are experiencing a reasonable reaction to a broken
| environment.
|
| We are far too quick to jump to "this person isn't functioning
| in society, therefore something must be wrong with them"
| instead of doing the hard work of adapting our social and
| economic systems to be more inclusive of different types of
| human experiences.
|
| Case in point, homosexuality used to be a sociopathic
| personality disorder, and pre-DSM we thought it was a mental
| illness causing enslaved people to want to escape slavery.
| RunningDroid wrote:
| > We are far too quick to jump to "this person isn't
| functioning in society, therefore something must be wrong
| with them" instead of doing the hard work of adapting our
| social and economic systems to be more inclusive of different
| types of human experiences.
|
| Careful saying things like that, someone might accuse you of
| being a socialist (slight /s)
| _doctor_love wrote:
| _> It is proposed that happiness be classified as a psychiatric
| disorder and be included in future editions of the major
| diagnostic manuals under the new name: major affective disorder,
| pleasant type. In a review of the relevant literature it is shown
| that happiness is statistically abnormal, consists of a discrete
| cluster of symptoms, is associated with a range of cognitive
| abnormalities, and probably reflects the abnormal functioning of
| the central nervous system. One possible objection to this
| proposal remains--that happiness is not negatively valued.
| However, this objection is dismissed as scientifically
| irrelevant._
|
| Reading this I can't help but feel that the person who wrote it
| is a POS.
| autoexec wrote:
| I'm guessing that it's just a joke, but I'll admit that it
| reads like something you'd expect from somebody who doesn't
| know the difference between "sad" and "depressed" and thinks
| that there's some vast conspiracy to medicate people for normal
| human emotions. I'd bet this is smugly shared all over facebook
| by ignorant people who think that things like depression or
| ADHD don't exist.
| doubled112 wrote:
| If I count on my fingers, just the ones I know the parents,
| I'd guess 7/10 kids in my neighbourhood have some sort of
| diagnosis or suspected diagnosis.
|
| To be honest, I'm also starting to wonder if we aren't
| medicating people for normal human emotions.
| autoexec wrote:
| What do the parents you know say when you tell them that
| they're medicating their children for normal human
| emotions? My guess is that they could give examples of
| things that aren't actually normal which caused them to
| seek out a professional in the first place.
|
| In previous generations children with corrective lenses
| were rare, and kids used to fear being made fun of and
| being called "four eyes" for wearing glasses to school.
| Recently it's gotten a whole lot more common for kids, even
| toddlers, to wear glasses. It might be tempting to think
| that Big Eyeglass was treating people for normal human
| blurriness, but it's more likely that eye glasses, and eye
| care more generally, has gotten more accessible and that
| more kids getting the care they need and recent
| environmental factors are contributing to the increase in
| kids needing glasses (and needing them at younger and
| younger ages).
|
| It's the same with mental health issues. We have increased
| awareness of mental health, reduced stigma around seeking
| and receiving treatment, improved treatments, a better
| understanding of various conditions and how to diagnose
| them, and recent environmental factors that may be
| exacerbating problems if not inducing them.
| arizen wrote:
| Happiness is a derivative of purpose. If someone optimizes their
| life strictly for happiness while deprioritizing purpose, they
| likely won't achieve either.
|
| Pursuing a meaningful goal almost always requires enduring
| unpleasant phases and friction along the way.
| xyzelement wrote:
| I find the word "happy" is unfortunately overloaded and confusing
| - and in its confusion makes it hard to know how to achieve the
| state.
|
| I think other languages have more shades for this much like
| eskimos have many words for snow.
|
| For example in the Jewish tradition the word "nahas" is something
| like the satisfaction of watching the children you raised become
| excellent parents of their own.
|
| Another word "simha" could be translated as "happy occasion" but
| really is only used for positive lifecycle events (birth,
| marriage, etc)
|
| In modern English we would probably use "happy" for all these but
| it's unfortunate that we'd also use the same word for triviality
| like "I am happy jerking off in my basement"
|
| The beauty of "nahas" and "simha" is they point us towards a
| sustainable and deeply meaningful way to be "happy" - to achieve
| significance in our lives that makes us feel good because things
| are deeply good.
|
| "Happiness" does not act as a guidepost in the same way. I
| believe it actually comes from the same root as "happen" - a sort
| of vagarity you hope to stumble into but aren't sure how to work
| towards.
|
| Don't get me started on the English word "love" lol.
| IAmBroom wrote:
| > ...much like eskimos have many words for snow.
|
| ... which is a stereotyped myth, like most of what we were
| taught about indigenous peoples everywhere.
|
| Turns out English has MANY more words for "stream of water on
| land" than Inuit has for snow. Inuit has multiple nuancing
| endings - but English has snow, snows, snowy, snowlike, and so
| one.
| tokai wrote:
| Redundant as it is possible to be bipolar with light hypomania
| without depressive episodes. So its already covered.
| lamontcg wrote:
| If this proposal was to add toxic positivity and optimism bias as
| a psychiatric disorder, I'd be on board with that.
| effed3 wrote:
| After ROTFL, and checking is not 1st april, seems in the same
| line of: "life is a disease, sexually transmitted, with 100%
| lethal exitus".
|
| More seriously (very little indeed) maybe the 'problem' is all
| those activities that need to create more and more new
| problems/disorders to justify all the work uppon, so what if
| psychiatry is a psychiatric disorder? regressum ad infinitum,
| take the red pill.
|
| About happiness, Buddha, asked about the way to happines, say:
| happiness is not the destination, is the way.
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