According to the nation's founders, the "pursuit of happiness" is an essential human right, and yet our schools provide us with few intellectual tools to explore the issue seriously. For many, the pursuit of happiness is a political dream, buried with the Declaration of Independence in the national archives.
Nearly twenty percent of U.S. citizens experience some form of depression during their lifetime. Americans are taking so many antidepressants that, according to the New York Times, the water supplies of major American cities are now contaminated with traces of these drugs. The problem is not limited to adults. The American Psychological Association reports that “as many as 9% of children will experience a major depressive episode by the time they are 14 years old, and 20% will experience a major depressive episode before graduating from high school.” Statistics show that children who have suffered from depression are more vulnerable to depression as adults.
That’s the bad news. Now for the good news.
Traditionally psychologists have focused their attentions on what makes depressed people depressed. Yet recently a small group of scientists has turned the question on its head. Now they are asking: “What makes happy people happy?” This Copernican shift in perspective has given rise to the new “science of happiness.” Continued
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