This from the Times (coincidentially).

What Makes Us Happy
By Sarah Arnquist

Three factors contribute greatly to happiness in later years, a new survey finds.

Whether you’re young or old,(1) good health, (2) stalwart friends and (3) financial security are the best predictors of happiness, according to a new survey on aging by the Pew Research Center.

The new survey shows that levels of happiness are roughly constant across age groups, despite platitudes about the bliss of youth. Among older adults, happiness tended to vary little with gender or race, the survey also found.

Still, key factors separate the happy from the unhappy.

Unsurprisingly, people in excellent health were 25 percent more likely to say they were “very happy” compared to those in poorer health, the survey found. Feeling financially prepared for retirement and having good friends were associated with similarly increased odds that people would describe themselves as happy.

Happiness intrigues scientists. While it’s clear that good health contributes to one’s contentment, many researchers think the reverse is also true — that happiness leads to good health. But the mechanisms are not clear, said Marlene Lee, a senior research associate at the Population Reference Bureau, a nonprofit research organization.

“It’s just absolutely fascinating that your happiness can not only lead to your health, but also to other people’s happiness and their health,” Ms. Lee said.

As people age, their social networks shrink, scientists have found. But while having fewer social outlets may negatively influence health, the intensity and emotional connection of the remaining relationships increases with age, which may help compensate for fewer social ties.

Scientists strongly suspect that expectations and the ability to adapt to changing life circumstances also influence happiness. Ms. Lee said people who adjust their expectations as their social networks and lifestyles change may avoid feelings of loneliness and isolation, which are linked to illness and earlier death.

Dear Dr Kaplan

You wrote;

//Paradoxically the study goes on to show that subjects felt somewhat better after thinking negative thoughts about themselves. Now this really is evidence for the efficacy and methodology of Provocative Therapy which is the cutting edge in the clinical application of reverse psychology.//

The philosopher Arthur Schopenauer (1788-1860) would, in addition to your own recomendations, advise a radical reassessment of ‘life’ as a whole. For instance, he said;

…’We can regard our life as a uselessly disturbing
episode in the blissful repose of nothingness’…

and that;

…’Human existence must be some kind of error. It may
be said of it, ”Its is as bad today and every day
it will get worse, until the worst of all happens” ‘…

and he said;

…’life is so short, questionable and evanescent that
it is not worth the trouble of major effort’…

and all that from a man who inherited enough wealth and property that he never had to lift a finger and do a days work…such as would make up the lives of the average world weary toiler!
What was his problem? Nothing I believe. The darkest thinkers may, paradoxically, be the most cheering, for:

…’There is only one inborn error, and that is the notion that we exist to be happy. So long as we persist in this inborn error, the world seems to us full of contradictions. For every step, in great things and small, we are bound to experience that the world and life are certainly not arranged for the purpose of maintaining a happy existence…hence the countenances of almost all elderly persons wear the expression of what is called disappointment’…

On a personal level, the following words of Vladmir Nabokov resonated with my own transition into adulthood:

…’The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness…Nature expects a full grown msn to accept the black voids fore and aft, as stolidly as he accepts the extraordinary visions in between. Imagination, the supreme delight of the immortal and
the immature, should be limited. I rebel against this state of affairs’…

Vladimir Nabokov

Regards

paul

Thanks Paul,
Schopenauer had much in common with Eastern philosophers and students of Vedanta. He differed in that he saw darkness at the centre of things and they saw enlightenment, understanding and bliss.
Philosophically I am with the specific type (ie NOT Sartre and others) of existentialism of Karl Jaspers and E.K. Ledermann (my mentor) and have learned a lot from Eastern thinkers – especially J. Krishnamurti.

And thank you Dr Kaplan

you wrote;

// …he saw darkness at the centre of things and they saw enlightenment, understanding and bliss.//

what was the anatomical/physiological ‘organs’ of ‘sight’ from which they derived their veiws?

paul

PS I noticed I made and input error with my E-mail address which I have now corrected.

Hi,
Interesting to see that the oldest surviving verteran from WWI died recently. In a recent interview he was asked the secret to his longevity. The answer was whiskey, cigarettes and loose women. Fabulous recipie.

You mean whisky – unless he was Irish, of course