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Review of Daniel Gilbert, Stumbling on Happiness ( 2005), 336 pp. Vintage Books, New York. In Stumbling on Happiness, a popular work that won the 2007 Royal Society’s Prize for Science Books, Gilbert examines the nature of and psychological obstacles to human happiness. The book contains five parts, with eleven chapters, that integrate research from game-theory, economics, neurophysiology, philosophy, experimental psychology and sociological study. In the professional psychological world, Gilbert is an expert in a field properly called “affective forecasting,” a technical phrase for the study of how human beings predict their future emotional state. It is highly likely, he thinks, that this unique human ability, coinciding with the growth of the frontal lobes, helped the species survive by guiding the emotions. “We are,” as Gilbert writes, “the ape that looked forward (p. 9).” However, this cognitive ability is anything but perfect. In fact, the constant refrain of the book is that we consistently miscalculate how we will feel in the future. Gilbert invites the reader to join him in examining this counter-intuitive human cognitive ability. Thus, in chapter two, “The View From in Here,” Gilbert shows that most of us make predictions about our future happiness in certain situations (e.g., as a lottery winner versus as a paraplegic) based on imagining further conditions (e.g., a lottery winner with perfect health or a paraplegic without a lover) that may not obtain and that directly influence our actual happiness in those situations. Rather than recommending a remedy for this characteristic, Stumbling on Happiness is a work on experimental psychology meant to explain the phenomena, rather than a clinical one meant to correct them. In chapter 9 (“Immune to Reality”) and again in concluding the book, Gilbert looks at the mechanisms we use to fend off unhappiness and spells out the details of what he calls the “psychological immune system.” Like the physical immune system that defends us from illness, the psychological immune system defends us from unhappiness. Psychological traumas (loss of a loved one, divorce, loss of a job) kick the psychological immune system into high gear, and the events are dealt with. The psychological trauma is very complex and must treated with a variety of healing techniques. But Gilbert does not explain how we are to cope with these traumas; it is, therefore, left to the reader to conceive of the ways in which a person copes with such an event (psychotherapy, anti-depressants, group therapy, exercise, meditation retreats, etc). Gilbert draws an analogy to the physical immune system with respect to the coping mechanisms. We seek treatment for major injuries (like a major gash) but do not seek treatment for minor injuries (small cuts). The result is that minor injuries can end up being worse over time than major ones. Likewise, the minor annoyance of, say, a spouse being late for an important date, is too small to trigger the psychological immune system, and therefore nothing is done to cope with the event. Yet over time, like tiny cuts that do not heal and lead to serious illness, these events can build to depression and other emotional disorders. These events hurt, and they hurt incessantly because the mental ‘immune system’ did not have a sufficient catalyst. Like Bertrand Russell, who explained relativity theory on analogy with India rubber, Gilbert has the gift of finding novel ways to convey difficult ideas. Couple that with his lucidity (also like Lord Russell’s) and the result is a book so thoroughly enjoyable it is difficult not to affectively forecast the pleasure of the next chapter. The danger is that the book’s readability and (sometimes corny) humor may prevent it from being taken seriously as the scholarly work it is. This book can be recommended to anyone interested in psychology, economics, or philosophy as well as to people who wish to gain some insight into human happiness and the foibles of the human mind.
brandonbildung@gmail.com
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