The Psychology of Happiness: Unravelling Self Help Nonsense by Understanding Your Brain

By Marcus Freestone

Self help books can be frustrating and counterproductive, peddling the myth that all your dreams will come true if you wish hard enough. This book uses science, psychology and philosophy to examine the true nature of happiness and make practical, down to earth suggestions to improve your well being. Learn why wealth and material gain do not lead to happiness and what is going on inside your brain when your are happy or unhappy. We also cover the positive psychology movement and some encouraging tips from the less miserable philosophers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Marcus Freestone
• Release date: Sep 24, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370118540

Marcus Freestone

My main work is the T14 series of thrillers about a futuristic, high tech counter terrorism agency headed by a man with a computer implant in his brain. The first book "The Memory Man" is permanently free in e-book. I also have a series of novellas on the subject of mental health and psychology. My most popular book is "Positive Thinking And The Meaning Of Life" which has had 200,000 downloads. It deals with psychology, philosophy, depression, anxiety, mental health in general and the human condition.I have also released more than 50 albums, ranging from metal and rock to jazz and ambient/electronica. And last but not first I also produce the "Positive Thinking And The Meaning Of Life" podcast and "The Midnight Insomnia Podcast", a comedy show with ambient music and abstract visual images.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.

Aristotle

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.

Marcus Aurelius

The world is, of course, nothing but our conception of it.

Anton Chekhov

This book is listed under self help or self improvement because there isn't a category into which it properly fits. As usual, however, I will be avoiding all that Californian mumbo jumbo about crystals and learning to love yourself. It is based on a large amount of research into the latest findings of psychology and neuroscience. Empirical, scientific studies have revealed a great deal about the nature and process of happiness and the way in which our thoughts, emotions and behaviour govern our lives, and I have summarised those results in a hopefully manageable, readable and useful manner. As well as looking at some of the latest studies in neuroscience and psychology we will also be delving into the history of existential philosophy in order to uncover the processes behind human happiness and positive thinking. This is a non academic book in which I have attempted to distil this information down to as few words as possible and focus entirely on practical, down to earth useful ideas and techniques. This is part of my continuing work on a personal synthesis of psychology, philosophy and science that I have been developing for twenty five years. Some of the ideas contained herein are empirical fact, some are merely my own subjective opinion. Whilst there are links throughout the book and a list of related online videos at the end, I have chosen to avoid using the standard form of academic referencing every time I mention a piece of research. I feel that this slows up the flow of the writing and that it can be off putting to many readers to have constant notation throughout the text – I myself avoid many books for this very reason. If you want a book that details the academic research then there are plenty of those available, not to mention countless online resources. Suffice to say that when I use the phrase 'studies have shown' I am referring to genuine university based scientific work. If you wish to follow up on any of this then that is easily done via any search engine.

I believe not only that a lot of self help books are not helpful, they are actively harmful and give us a totally unrealistic view of ourselves and the world and what it is possible for human beings to achieve. An important aspect of mental health is maintaining touch with reality, and therefore believing that the universe is watching over you and cares about you and will grant you your wishes is not only a false hope but also deleterious to your health and happiness. It is simply untrue that, as Wayne Dyer says in 'Stop The Excuses!' ... when we change the way we think, and learn new ways of perceiving, we can actually change our DNA!. We categorically CANNOT rewrite our DNA. However, we CAN rewire our own brains and fundamentally change our view of the world and ourselves. There are many things we can do to change the way our brain functions but we have to be realistic and not buy into the You can be anything you want to be lies – if you believe this and try to make unrealistic things happen you will only be disappointed and disillusioned.

There is an awful and pernicious video, and I believe book, called The Secret. I was shown this on a course once and it made me very angry: just one small example will show why. With the usual irritating background music, dreamy visuals and American drawl, we were told about a child who wanted a bike for Christmas. He opened his heart to the universe (whatever the hell that means) and the universe rewarded him – on Christmas day he received the bike he wanted. I exploded at this and declared very forcefully to the tutor of this course that this was total bullshit. The kid got the bike because his parents went to a bike shop and bought it for him, it had nothing to do with the universe, which has merely become a watered down way of talking about some sort of God for people who are too lazy to commit to an actual religion. This kind of hippy metaphysical bullshit is extremely dangerous because it implies that your very thoughts can affect the course of history. What it is saying is that you don't have to do anything to get what you want, you just have to wish for it, and if you don't then it's your fault for not wishing hard enough. Your thoughts affect nothing in the material world, that requires physical action. This childish nonsense is corrosive and must be stamped out. So if you are reading this book in the hope that you will be given some magical mantra for achieving everything you want then you will be sorely disappointed, and deservedly so.

Here is another example of where you should maintain a healthy scepticism: POSITIVE AFFIRMATIONS MOSTLY DO NOT WORK. Empirical studies have shown that the In ever day and every way I am getting better and better type of affirmation only work for people who already have high self esteem and therefore don't need any positive affirmation. For people with low self esteem this kind of mantra not only doesn't work, it actually makes them feel WORSE about themselves, it erodes their already brittle self esteem even further. This is because they are