Maybe I'm Delusional
But if I am, that's okay with me. And that is what Daniel Gilbert would predict. I read a review by Scott Stossel in next Sunday's NY Times Review of Books (I have a subscription so get it early) of "Stumbling on Happiness" by Gilbert.
Gilbert (http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/bios/gilbert.html) is "Harvard College Professor of Psychology at Harvard University and Director of Harvard’s Hedonic Psychology Laboratory. He is generally considered the world's foremost authority in the fields of affective forecasting and the fundamental attribution error. " I have read and used work by several of his colleagues in several of the courses I taught at the University of Maryland and Mount Vernon College, so am familiar with a lot of the work on affect coming out of that school, but hadn't heard of this yet. His basic premise, as I understand it from the review, is that most people don't really know what will make them happy and that most people who are happy are so in spite of the fact that the world sucks.
Okay, so I read in the W. Post this morning that West Nile Virus cases are up(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/04/AR2006050401931.html) (that scares me)
and so are unwanted pregnancies among poor women(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/04/AR2006050400820.html) due, apparently, to the "success" of abstinence only programs, which have caused them, but not wealthier women, to cut down on their use of contraceptives. I hate that. It makes me angry.
But on the whole I consider myself a happy person who can have some affect in the world, so I guess I would be an example of Gilbert's assertion, via the reviewer, that "healthy people can be deluded into greater happiness when granted the mere illusion of control over their environment" whereas "the clinically depressed recognize the illusion for what it is." I do have to say that I think I disagree with the notion that "control" over ones environment is always an illusion. I think the better assertion, the more accurate assertion, may be that people are happier when they understand and accept the extent to which they have control over their environment. It does seem to be the case that Will and I affected at least our immediate neighborhood environment last week by apparently successfully resolving the parking congestion dispute. At least if anyone is still unhappy about the various compromises we have all made to accommodate each other, s/he is keeping it to her/himself, so there would be nothing more we can do. And based on further feedback, I think we contributed to a more neighborly sense of neighborhood on our block, to use a phrase that may annoy some people - a kinder, gentler block.
In any event, I may also support his theory to the extent that I regard myself as a happy person and so if it is the case that happy people "cook the facts" to maintain their notions of themselves, then perhaps I do. But I would also assert that depressed people also keep themselves depressed by "cooking the facts" to do that, too. To me the world is just what it is, the glass is both half empty and half full, and you do choose to do the focusing. All of that said, perhaps I should read the book before saying anything more about his theories. Maybe the reviewer got it all wrong....or partially wrong....or...is entirely delusional. I'm smiling.
Gilbert (http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/bios/gilbert.html) is "Harvard College Professor of Psychology at Harvard University and Director of Harvard’s Hedonic Psychology Laboratory. He is generally considered the world's foremost authority in the fields of affective forecasting and the fundamental attribution error. " I have read and used work by several of his colleagues in several of the courses I taught at the University of Maryland and Mount Vernon College, so am familiar with a lot of the work on affect coming out of that school, but hadn't heard of this yet. His basic premise, as I understand it from the review, is that most people don't really know what will make them happy and that most people who are happy are so in spite of the fact that the world sucks.
Okay, so I read in the W. Post this morning that West Nile Virus cases are up(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/04/AR2006050401931.html) (that scares me)
and so are unwanted pregnancies among poor women(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/04/AR2006050400820.html) due, apparently, to the "success" of abstinence only programs, which have caused them, but not wealthier women, to cut down on their use of contraceptives. I hate that. It makes me angry.
But on the whole I consider myself a happy person who can have some affect in the world, so I guess I would be an example of Gilbert's assertion, via the reviewer, that "healthy people can be deluded into greater happiness when granted the mere illusion of control over their environment" whereas "the clinically depressed recognize the illusion for what it is." I do have to say that I think I disagree with the notion that "control" over ones environment is always an illusion. I think the better assertion, the more accurate assertion, may be that people are happier when they understand and accept the extent to which they have control over their environment. It does seem to be the case that Will and I affected at least our immediate neighborhood environment last week by apparently successfully resolving the parking congestion dispute. At least if anyone is still unhappy about the various compromises we have all made to accommodate each other, s/he is keeping it to her/himself, so there would be nothing more we can do. And based on further feedback, I think we contributed to a more neighborly sense of neighborhood on our block, to use a phrase that may annoy some people - a kinder, gentler block.
In any event, I may also support his theory to the extent that I regard myself as a happy person and so if it is the case that happy people "cook the facts" to maintain their notions of themselves, then perhaps I do. But I would also assert that depressed people also keep themselves depressed by "cooking the facts" to do that, too. To me the world is just what it is, the glass is both half empty and half full, and you do choose to do the focusing. All of that said, perhaps I should read the book before saying anything more about his theories. Maybe the reviewer got it all wrong....or partially wrong....or...is entirely delusional. I'm smiling.
posted by pat at 4:56 AM
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