The Nature of Unhappiness

The Nature of Unhappiness PDF Author: David Smail
Publisher: Constable
ISBN: 9781841193502
Category : Depression, Mental
Languages : en
Pages : 494

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Book Description
Containing two of Smail's seminal works, this book, together with the companion volume Why Therapy Doesn't Work, form a synthesis of his theory & practice, offering an understanding of the origins of psychological disorder & the available therapy.

The Nature of Unhappiness

The Nature of Unhappiness PDF Author: David Smail
Publisher: Constable
ISBN: 9781841193502
Category : Depression, Mental
Languages : en
Pages : 494

Get Book Here

Book Description
Containing two of Smail's seminal works, this book, together with the companion volume Why Therapy Doesn't Work, form a synthesis of his theory & practice, offering an understanding of the origins of psychological disorder & the available therapy.

The Pursuit of Unhappiness

The Pursuit of Unhappiness PDF Author: Daniel M. Haybron
Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand
ISBN: 0199545987
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 376

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Book Description
"The pursuit of happiness is a defining theme of the modern era. But what if people aren't very good at it? This and related questions are explored in this book, the first comprehensive philosophical treatment of happiness in the contemporary psychological sense. In these pages, Dan Haybron argues that people are probably less effective at judging, and promoting, their own welfare than common belief has it. As a result, we may need to rethink traditional assumptions about human nature, the good life, and the good society. Thoroughly engaged with both philosophical and scientific work on happiness and well-being, this book will be a definitive resource for philosophers, social scientists, policymakers, and other students of human well-being."--BOOK JACKET.

Biological Unhappiness

Biological Unhappiness PDF Author: Leland M. Heller
Publisher: Dyslimbia PressInc
ISBN: 9781928947004
Category : Mental illness
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description


The Origins of Unhappiness

The Origins of Unhappiness PDF Author: David Smail
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429907400
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
It is the main argument of this book that emotional and psychological distress is often brought about through the operation of social-environmental powers which have their origin at a considerable distance from those ultimately subjected to them. On the whole, psychology has concerned itself very little with the field of power which stretches beyond our immediate relations with each other, and this has led to serious limitations on the explanatory power of the theories it has produced. To illustrate this, typical cases of patient distress in the 1980s are examined. The decade when the right-wing of politics proclaimed there was no such thing as society gave rise to psychological distress across social classes, as long-standing societal institutions were dismantled. This is as much a work of sociology, politics, and philosophy, as it is of psychology. Fundamentals of an environmental understanding of distress are outlined. A person is the interaction of a body with the environment.

The Origins of Unhappiness

The Origins of Unhappiness PDF Author: David Smail
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780094793408
Category : Affective disorders
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Through his examination of how visible and invisible social power - institutions, politics, the Establishment - wields an influence over our lives often beyond our immediate control, Smail leads us to a clear understanding of distress.'

My American Unhappiness

My American Unhappiness PDF Author: Dean Bakopoulos
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0547821794
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 293

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Book Description
“Why are you so unhappy?” That’s the question that Zeke Pappas, a thirty-three-year-old scholar, asks almost everybody he meets as part of an obsessive project, “The Inventory of American Unhappiness.” The answers he receives—a mix of true sadness and absurd complaint—create a collage of woe. Zeke, meanwhile, remains delightfully oblivious to the increasingly harsh realities that threaten his daily routine, opting instead to focus his energy on finding the perfect mate so that he can gain custody of his orphaned nieces. Following steps outlined in a women’s magazine, the ever-optimistic Zeke identifies some “prospects”: a newly divorced neighbor, a coffeehouse barista, his administrative assistant, and Sofia Coppola (“Why not aim high?”). A clairvoyant when it comes to the Starbucks orders of strangers, a quixotic renegade when it comes to the federal bureaucracy, and a devoted believer in the afternoon cocktail and the evening binge, Zeke has an irreverent voice that is a marvel of lacerating wit and heart-on-sleeve emotion, underscored by a creeping paranoia and made more urgent by the hope that if he can only find a wife, he might have a second chance at life.

Explaining Unhappiness

Explaining Unhappiness PDF Author: Peter Spinogatti
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1450254411
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
Serious books inevitably start with an instigating question, and the question that Explaining Unhappiness answers is this: What are you afraid would happen if you weren’t unhappy? Why? Because this is the question that everybody asks all their lives, without ever fully realizing it. We are deeply engaged in the assumptions contained within it. What are we assuming when we ask that question? First, we’re suggesting that it is possible to be happy regardless of the present circumstances in which we find ourselves—that unhappiness doesn’t just happen, but that it may be self-imposed. Further, this chosen state may have less to do with what is happening in the present and more to do with warding off a fearfully anticipated future. Finally, we must also believe that, somehow, unhappiness pays off. We are forced to conclude, then, that we value unhappiness. Explaining Unhappiness was written for anyone who has come to realize that “realizing your potential” and “increasing your coping skills” have become old chestnuts that never really gave you what you really wanted—namely, a definitive answer as to why you need to believe that something is wrong with you.

How to Survive Without Psychotherapy

How to Survive Without Psychotherapy PDF Author: David Smail
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429914644
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 162

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Book Description
This book is directly aimed at sufferers of mental distress. The book's aim is to remove from sufferers the burden of 'fault' for their pain and to demystify some of the practices that surround the 'treatment' of mental illness. It is not exactly a self-help book because it is a false claim of any 'treatment' of mental illness that 'cure' can be brought about by exercise of will. Much of what causes mental distress is lack of power and resource, outside the control of the sufferer. Surviving without psychotherapy involves the appreciation of several things. First, the limited nature of therapeutic assistance - whilst clarification and support may help the sufferer understand his/her predicament and encourage the use of what resources the sufferer has, therapy cannot change the distal root causes of distress. Second, that only socio-political solutions can address some of the most powerful causes of distress, e.g., redundancy, housing and poverty. In sounding a cautionary note about psychoanalysis, Smail observes that mental distress is far more about money than sex.

Work, Happiness, and Unhappiness

Work, Happiness, and Unhappiness PDF Author: Peter Warr
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 1135599076
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 539

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Book Description
Award-winning psychologist Peter Warr explores why some people at work are happier or unhappier than others. He evaluates different approaches to the definition and assessment of happiness, and combines environmental and person-based themes to explain differences in people's experience. A framework of key job characteristics is linked to an account of primary mental processes, and those are set within a summary of demographic, cultural, and occupational patterns. Consequences of happiness or unhappiness for individuals and groups are also reviewed, as is recent literature on unemployment and retirement. Although primarily focusing on job situations, the book shows that processes of happiness are similar across settings of all kinds. It provides a uniquely comprehensive assessment of research published across the world. Initial chapters explore the several meanings of happiness and the ways in which those have been measured by psychologists. The construct includes pleasure, satisfaction and subjective well-being, and unhappiness has been studied in terms of dissatisfaction, strain, anxiety, and depression. The impacts of principal environmental features on these experiences are reviewed through an analogy with vitamins in relation to physical health—beneficial only up to a point. However, environmental effects are not fixed. Influences on happiness from within the person are examined in terms of principal thinking patterns, personality styles, and cultural backgrounds. Differences are explored between groups (men and women, older and younger people, employees who are full-time and part-time, and so on), and processes of person-environment fit are placed within an overall framework which emphasizes the impact of variations in personal salience. The book is written primarily for academic readers, including senior undergraduates, graduate students, teachers, and researchers in fields of Industrial/Organizational Psychology, Management, Human Resources, and Labor Studies. However, the topic's centrality in many professions makes it important also to a wider readership.

The Pursuit of Unhappiness

The Pursuit of Unhappiness PDF Author: Daniel M. Haybron
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191562912
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 377

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Book Description
The pursuit of happiness is a defining theme of the modern era. But what if people aren't very good at it? This and related questions are explored in this book, the first comprehensive philosophical treatment of happiness in the contemporary psychological sense. In these pages, Dan Haybron argues that people are probably less effective at judging, and promoting, their own welfare than common belief has it. For the psychological dimensions of well-being, particularly our emotional lives, are far richer and more complex than we tend to realize. Knowing one's own interests is no trivial matter. As well, we tend to make a variety of systematic errors in the pursuit of happiness. We may need, then, to rethink traditional assumptions about human nature, the good life, and the good society. Thoroughly engaged with both philosophical and scientific work on happiness and well-being, this book will be a definitive resource for philosophers, social scientists, policy makers, and other students of human well-being.