Happiness, Sadness and Government

Authors

  • G. Duncan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/hcs.2013.130

Keywords:

happiness, depression, biopolitics, human sciences, public policy

Abstract

Policy-making that re-presents – as objects of concern and by means of statistics – the suffering or depression and the happiness of populations indicates an evolving form of governance that examines and reshapes subjectivity itself. Never before have states of subjectivity been acted upon, through surveys, statistical and policy analysis, and scientific disciplines, to the extent seen today.

This article:

  • Documents changing epistemic co-ordinates, especially in psychology and economics, that first occluded happiness in the interests of objectivity, but, in recent decades, marked out a renewed ‘science’ of happiness.
  • Examines changes in the discursive formulation of depression, as a counterpart to happiness.
  • Argues that, seen in terms of bio-power, contemporary concerns for happiness and depression are consistent – rather than incompatible – with one another.
How can so many claim to be happy when so many, we are told, are depressed, anxious or suffering emotional pain? There is no underlying contradiction here, for two reasons: Happiness and depression are manifestations of the same political discourse (or aspects of a political subjectivity) characterized by dis-inhibition, consumer self-indulgence and performance anxiety. And, just as we needed madness in order to understand ‘sanity,’ or the prison in order to view ourselves as ‘free,’ so we rely upon concerns about depression in order to understand and act upon ourselves as subjects capable of unlimited happiness.

Author Biography

G. Duncan

Dr Grant Duncan is an academic and writer living in Auckland, New Zealand. He teaches political theory and public policy. He writes on the relations between public institutions and subjective states, and he is an active commentator on current affairs.

References

Angell, M. (2011a, June 23). The epidemic of mental illness: Why? Retrieved March 16, 2012, from The New York Review of Books: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/jun/23/epidemic-mental-illness-why/

Angell, M. (2011b, July 14). The illusions of psychiatry. Retrieved March 16, 2012, from The New York Review of Books: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/jul/14/illusions-of-psychiatry/

Bentham, J. (1979). Introduction to the principles of morals and legislation (chapters I–V). In M. Warnock, Utilitarianism (pp. 33–77). Glasgow: Fount.

Bok, D. (2010). The politics of happiness: What government can learn from the new research on well-being. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Cameron, D. (2010, November 25). PM speech on wellbeing. Retrieved November 8, 2011, from UK Prime Minister’s Office: http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/pm-speech-on-well-being/

Centre for Economic Performance (2006). The depression report: A New Deal for depression and anxiety disorders. London: London School of Economics and Political Science.

Daly, H. (1996). Beyond growth: The economics of sustainable development. Boston: Beacon Press.

Davies, W. (2011). The political economy of unhappiness. New Left Review (71), 65–80: http://newleftreview.org/II/71/william-davies-the-political-economy-of-unhappiness.

Dietrich, S., Mergl, R., Freudenberg, P., Althaus, D., & Hegerl, U. (2010). Impact of a campaign on the public’s attitudes towards depression. Health Education Research, 25 (1), 135–150. doi:10.1093/her/cyp050

Donovan, N., & Halpern, D. (2002). Life-satisfaction: The state of knowledge and the implications for governments. London: Strategy Unit.

Duncan, G. (2007). After happiness. Journal of Political Ideologies, 12 (1), 85–108. doi: 10.1080/13569310601095630

Duncan, G. (2010). Should happiness-maximization be the goal of government? Journal of Happiness Studies, 11 (2), 163–178. doi: 10.1007/s10902-008-9129-y

Dutt, A. K., & Radcliff, B. (2009). What is to be done? Toward a 'happier' world. In A. K. Dutt, & B. Radcliff, Happiness, economics and politics: Towards a multi-disciplinary approach (pp. 343–350). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

Easterlin, R. A. (1974). Does economic growth improve the human lot? Some empirical evidence. In I. David, & M. Reder, Nations and households in economic growth. Essays in honor of Moses Abramovitz (pp. 89–125). New York: Academic Press.

Easterlin, R. A. (2003). Explaining happiness. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 100 (19), 11176–11183. doi:10.1073/pnas.1633144100

Edgeworth, F. Y. (2003). Mathematical psychics (1881). In S. G. Medema, & W. J. Samuels, The history of economic thought: A reader (pp. 479–503). London: Routledge.

Ehrenberg, A. (2010). The weariness of the self: Diagnosing the history of depression in the contemporary age. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press.

Foucault, M. (1995). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison. New York: Vintage Books.

Foucault, M. (2009). History of madness. London: Routledge.

Foucault, M. (1994). The order of things: An archaeology of the human sciences. New York: Vintage.

Foucault, M. (1982). The subject and power. Critical Inquiry, 8 (4), 777-795.

Freud, S. (1985). Civilization and its discontents (1930). In S. Freud, Society and religion: Pelican Freud library (Vol. 12, pp. 245–340). Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Freud, S. (1977). Three essays on the theory of sexuality (1905). In S. Freud, On sexuality: Pelican Freud library (Vol. 7, pp. 31-169). Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Frey, B. S. (2008). Happiness: A revolution in economics. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.

Frey, B. S., & Stutzer, A. (2009). Should national happiness be maximized? In A. K. Dutt, & B. Radcliff, Happiness, economics and politics: Towards a multi-disciplinary approach (pp. 301–323). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

Frey, B. S., & Stutzer, A. (2002). What can economists learn from happiness research? Journal of Economic Literature, 40, 402–435.

Hardt, M. (1999). Affective labour. Boundary 2, 26 (2), 89–100.

Helliwell, J., Layard, R., & Sachs, J. (2012). World happiness report. New York: The Earth Institute, Columbia University.

Hicks, J., & Allen, R. (1934). A reconsideration of the theory of value. Economica, 1 (1), 52–76.

Hobbes, T. (1998). Leviathan. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Horwitz, A., & Wakefield, J. (2007). The loss of sadness: How psychiatry transformed normal sorrow into depressive disorder. New York: Oxford Univeristy Press.

Iliopoulos, J. (2012). Foucault’s notion of power and current psychiatric practice. Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology, 19 (1), 49-58. doi: 10.1353/ppp.2012.0006

Jorgensen, I., & Nafstad, H. (2004). Positive psychology: Historical, philosophical and epistemological perspectives. In L. P.A., & S. Joseph, Positive psychology in practice (pp. 15–34). Hoboken: John Wiley.

Laing, R. (1960). The divided self: An existential study in sanity and madness. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Layard, R. (2005). Happiness: Lessons from a new science. New York: Penguin.

Lewis, A. J. (1934). Melancholia: A historical review. The Journal of Mental Science, 80 (328), 1–42.

Maj, M. (2012). Bereavement-related depression in the DSM-5 and ICD-11. World Psychiarty, 11 (1), 1-2.

Martin, M. W. (2012). Happiness and the good life. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Maslow, A. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50 (4), 370-396.

Ng, Y.-K., & Ho, L. (2006). Introduction: Happiness as the only ultimate objective of public policy. In Y.-K. Ng, & L. Ho. Happiness and public policy: Theory, case studies and implications (pp. 1–16). Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.

Norberg, J. (2005). The scientist’s pursuit of happiness. Policy (21), 9–13.

Parker, G. (2000). Classifying depression: Should paradigms lost be regained? American Journal of Psychiatry, 157 (8), 1195–1203. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10910777

Paykel, E., Hart, D., & Priest, R. (1998). Changes in public attitudes to depression during the Defeat Depression campaign. British Journal of Psychiatry, 173 (6), 519–522. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9926082

Peer, L. (1992). The practice of opinion polling as a disciplinary mechanism: A Foucauldian perspective. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 4 (3), 230–242.

Philip, B. (2009). Analysing the politics of self-help books on depression. Journal of Sociology, 45 (2), 151–168. doi: 10.1177/1440783309103343

Pratt, L., Brody, D., & Gu, Q. (2011). Antidepressant use in persons aged 12 and over: United States, 2005–2008. Hyattsville MD: National Centre for Health Statistics. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db76.htm

Radcliff, B. (2001). Politics, markets, and life satisfaction: The political economy of human happiness. The American Political Science Review, 95 (4), 939-952.

Ridge, C., Rice, T., & Cherry, M. (2009). The causal link between happiness and democratic welfare regimes. In A. K. Dutt, & B. Radcliff, Happiness, economics and politics (pp. 271–284). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

Robbins, L. (2008). The nature and significance of economic science. In D. M. Hausman, the philosophy of economics: An anthology (pp. 73–99). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Rogers, C. R. (1947). Some observations on the organization of personality. American Psychologist, 2 (9), 358-368.

Ruddick, S. (2010). The politics of affect: Spinoza in the work of Negri and Deleuze. Theory, Culture & Society, 27 (4), 21–45. doi: 10.1177/0263276410372235

Samuelson, P. A. (1948). consumption theory in terms of revealed preference. Economica, 15 (60), 243-253.

Scitovsky, T. (1976). The joyless economy: An inquiry into human satisfaction and consumer dissatisfaction. New York: Oxford University Press.

Secretary-General of the United Nations. (2013, April 2). International Day of Happiness. Retrieved August 1, 2013, from United Nations: http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2012/sgsm14204.doc.htm

Seligman, M. E., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction. American Psychologist, 55 (1), 5–14. doi: 10.1037//0003-066X.55.1.5

Skinner, B. (1971). Beyond freedom and dignity. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.

Spinoza, B. d. (1996). Ethics. London: Penguin.

Szasz, T. S. (1960). The myth of mental illness. American Psychologist, 15 (2), 113-118.

Tribe, K. (2008). Happiness: What's the use? Economy & Society, 37 (3), 460–468. doi: 10.1080/03085140802172730

Veenhoven, R. (2004). Happiness as a public policy aim: The greatest happiness principle. In L. P.A., & S. Joseph, Positive psychology in practice (pp. 658–678). Hoboken: John Wiley.

Wakefield, J. C., & First, M. B. (2012). Validity of the bereavement exclusion to major depression: Does the empirical evidence support the proposal to eliminate the exclusion in DSM-5? World Psychiatry, 11 (1), 3-10. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22294996

Waring, M. (1989). If women counted: A new feminist economics. London: Macmillan.

Waterman, A. S. (2013). The humanistic psychology–positive psychology divide: Contrasts in philosophical foundations. American Psychologist, 68 (3), 124–133. doi: 10.1037/a0032168

Watson, J. B. (1913). Psychology as the behaviorist views it. Psychological Review, 20 (2), 158-177.

Whitaker, R. (2010). Anatomy of an epidemic: Magic bullets, psychiatric drugs, and the astonishing rise of mental illness in America. New York: Crown.

Williams, C. (2010). Affective processes without a subject: Rethinking the relation between subjectivity and affect with Spinoza. Subjectivity, 3 (3), 245–262. doi: 10.1057/sub.2010.15

World Health Organization (2008). The global burden of disease: 2004 Update. Geneva: WHO. http://www.who.int/healthinfo/global_burden_disease/2004_report_update/en/

Downloads

Published

2013-11-15

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 1 (2013): Translating Happiness: Medicine, Culture and Social Progress

Section

Articles

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
  2. Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
  3. The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
    1. Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
    with the understanding that the above condition can be waived with permission from the Author and that where the Work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.
  4. The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  5. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a prepublication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
  6. Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
  7. The Author represents and warrants that:
    1. the Work is the Author’s original work;
    2. the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
    3. the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
    4. the Work has not previously been published;
    5. the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
    6. the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
  8. The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.

Revised 7/16/2018. Revision Description: Removed outdated link.