As you might imagine Jon Stewart of Comedy Central has a little different take on the academic contributions to the field of happiness. Professor Tal Ben-Shahar’s author of Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fullfillment made the unfortunate decision, for Tal, to be interviewed on Jon’s show. See Tal Ben-Shahar interview.
As counterpoint you will find reviews of John Haidt’s The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom and Tal Ben-Shahar’s book in OhmyNews. an English language Korean publication.
The books are inspired by the discipline of positive psychology which began 10 years ago; and use research data to make their point.
The positive psychology movement has changed the face of mental health. Instead of focusing exclusively on pathology, this new discipline helps people develop and maintain a sense of wellbeing. This is a good thing.
