Happiness Industry, Happycracy, Happychondriacs: Positive Psychology

追加: 2026-05-09

[00:00:01]This is not my first video dedicated to what is known as positive psychology which veers off very frequently into the territory of toxic positivity. So I advise you to have a look search through my channel uh until you find the relevant videos. But today I would like to focus on happiness. The emphasis on happiness. You see, here's the problem.

[00:00:31]The self-help industry, the self-development industry, and they are industries.

[00:00:38]Positive thinking industry, positive psychology industry. It's a movement.

[00:00:45]It's a movement that consists of focusing only on the positive in order to improve one's personal development and thriving. Now there are a few problems with this. First of all, life is nuanced. It's not only positive, there are negatives. Second thing, negative things like loss and pain drive personal growth and development. They're engines.

[00:01:16]And so when you are in touch with reality, when this friction causes you to bleed, you're actually growing up, maturing, acquiring new skills, new lessons, new experiences, becoming wiser.

[00:01:34]To completely eliminate the negative, to teach people to ignore the negative, is to render them helpless and dependent.

[00:01:45]and implicit messages. If you're not happy, something is wrong with you. If you don't think positively all the time, you are defective, you need help, you need curing, you need healing.

[00:02:01]It's as if thinking positively is the default state. And if somehow you deviate or diverge from this alleged ostensible standard, something is wrong with you. not with a standard.

[00:02:16]The idea is that a virtuous cycle or can be created between a positive attitude and a happy life. Although no studies support this contention, it's not substantiated.

[00:02:33]Okay. So this is what some people call hypocrisy.

[00:02:38]Hypocrisy is a school of thought that says that happiness rules. Happiness should be the guidepost, the benchmark, the goal, provide direction and purpose, serve as an organizing principle. And happiness should explain life and imbue it with meaning, make sense of it.

[00:02:58]There's a whole monopoly of associated services and there it's the happiness industry or as some people call it hypocrisy.

[00:03:10]Hypocrisy was a term a word and neurologism first coined in an essay.

[00:03:16]The essay warned about the happiness industry that seeks to sell, I'm quoting, emotional commodities in the form of services, therapies, and products that promise emotional transformations.

[00:03:30]The authors of this essay, later turned into a book, have also denounced the potential perverse effects of the injunction to happiness. Those who do not achieve happiness despite their best efforts would see a feeling of guilt, of inadequacy, of shame added to their suffering.

[00:03:54]And of course, the next inevitable step step is therapy or coaching or some form of paid professional. These professionals unscrupulously, I would even say malevolently make you feel that you're a failure, that you're a loser, that if you're not happy all the time and at all times, something is absolutely wrong with you, and you need to focus on your deficiencies, shortcomings, and defaults.

[00:04:24]Here's the thing. Focusing too much on yourself is bad for you. I'm not talking about pathological narcissism, which is the next inevitable step. I'm talking about being preoccupied with yourself, obsessed with yourself.

[00:04:40]And so the excessive focus on the self is a detriment to, for example, social functioning. The more focused you are on yourself, the less capable you are of collaborating with other people, of being empathic, of being sensitive to other people's needs and wishes.

[00:04:59]of somehow fitting in.

[00:05:02]The authors of hypoc hypocrisy, I'm sorry, hypocrisy, the authors of hypocrisy suggested that these currents, these trends, these social trends favor what they call hpicondriacs.

[00:05:17]People who anxiously are focused on their ego, their well-being, their welfare, their state of mind, and continue are continuously concerned with correcting their psychological failings.

[00:05:31]The injunction to positive thinking is reflected in the slogan, it's going to be fine, it's going to be okay. This slogan is nonsensical. It's also counterfactual. Very often things are not going to be fine, are not going to be okay, and the good guys don't always win. To quote a bigger intellect than mine.

[00:05:56]Quebec psychologist Pascal Bordo says that this slogan I I'm quoting does not reflect everyone's state of mind and does not invite people to share and welcome different experiences such as suffering, anxiety, depression, anger, and so on. In other words, when we are focused on positive thinking, we exclude people with negative thinking like don't contaminate me. Don't come near me. Don't infect me with your negative attitude and negativity in general or negative effects.

[00:06:31]That excludes a big portion of humanity that constricts one's level of experience.

[00:06:39]That is not good.

[00:06:41]one needs to be exposed to the totality of the whole spectrum of what it is to be human.

[00:06:49]It's a dangerous slogan. This psychology says that this slogan is dangerous because it can contribute, I'm quoting again, to make people who do not share a positive vision of the future to feel inadequate, guilty, misunderstood, and alone. and to cause the expression of sadness, pessimism, anger, and anxiety to become taboo.

[00:07:12]It's an era of happiness. Everyone feels entitled to happiness. It's a form of narcissistic entitlement. You deserve happiness. Why is that? Where is it written? In which constitution does it constitute an article? What do you mean you deserve happiness? No one deserves happiness.

[00:07:34]No one deserves happiness. Happiness is not um something that you're born with, not something you acquire automatically, not something other people owe you, owe to you. You don't have a right to happiness that imposes corresponding obligations on others. No one is responsible for your happiness, your state of mind, your moods, your emotions. Only you.

[00:08:02]Whatever the case may be, happiness now as a discourse has permeated all areas of life, especially social life.

[00:08:13]Psychologist are obsessed with happiness. Economists are preoccupied with happiness. Coaches of course make a fortune of the happiness industry.

[00:08:23]Million activities, therapies, you name it. Even the corporate world has entered the game and is offering corporate happiness to its employees now that artificial intelligence is coming. Good luck with that.

[00:08:41]It's important.

[00:08:42]It's important to realize that life is varied. Life is nuanced. If you split life, all good, all bad, you you're infantilizing yourself. you're regressing. You're diskilling yourself.

[00:09:00]It's you need to be exposed to diversity. You need to be exposed to pluralism.

[00:09:07]Diversity of other people, their states of mind, their emotions, their moods, their experiences, their hopes, their dreams, their fears, their fantasies, their wishes, their needs, their demands, their discourse. There you need to expose yourself to the totality of the human experience. variety of approaches is very important.

[00:09:29]When we deal with mental health problems, we often attribute them to the lack to the underlying lack of happiness or we say that they cause unhappiness.

[00:09:39]That is not always true. Of course, it's a myth. Many mentally healthy mentally ill people are very happy and many many mentally healthy people are very very unhappy.

[00:09:52]There are different approaches, different disorders, different standards of health, different types of interactions, different expectations, different needs, different psychologies. What are we talking about?

[00:10:04]It's not one sizefits-all. Your happiness is not my happiness, and my happiness is not yours. I can assure you the quest for happiness has to be idiosyncratic and individualized. And therefore, it can't be cookie cutter. No therapist can help you with this because therapy is a mass industrial approach.

[00:10:27]Therapy generalizes. Psychology generalizes about human beings.

[00:10:32]Psychology deals with populations, not with individuals. You need to find your own way. You need to find your way. And no one can help you with it. Don't kid yourself. No one is coming to save you.

[00:10:43]No one is coming to enlighten you. And no one is coming to take you by the hand.

[00:10:48]It's the journey. It's the path. It's the Dao. It's what we here for.

[00:10:55]And don't pursue happiness.

[00:11:00]Pursue functioning.

[00:11:02]Pursue contentment. Pursue harmony.

[00:11:07]Pursue collaboration or synergy. Pursue being part of rather than standing aside.

[00:11:20]Don't make your happiness a zero sum game.

[00:11:24]I can be happy only if others are unhappy.

[00:11:28]You need to pursue this quest for happiness in a very realistic way. Don't lose your reality testing. Don't live in fantasy.

[00:11:37]Unfortunately, the self-help industry and so on encourages fantasy. Whatever method you choose, keep in mind the variety and freedom of each person.

[00:11:47]to choose their journey, their destination or even a lack of destination. Respect.

[00:11:56]This is the essence of respect.

[00:11:59]Ultimately, you will never you will never experience well-being unless you respect the well-being of others. That's where you start with others, not with yourself. And then through others you become, through others you explore, through others you discover. Be relational not individualistic.