Self-Transcendence and the Pursuit of Happiness
This philosophical investigation is motivated by the common association between happiness and self-transcendence, and a question posed by Freud: “Why is it so hard for men to be happy?” I consider the answers given in three key texts from the psychoanalytic tradition, Daniel Kahneman’s <i>Thin...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-10-01
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| Series: | Philosophies |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2409-9287/8/5/98 |
| _version_ | 1797225286469681152 |
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| author | Andrea Hurst |
| author_facet | Andrea Hurst |
| author_sort | Andrea Hurst |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This philosophical investigation is motivated by the common association between happiness and self-transcendence, and a question posed by Freud: “Why is it so hard for men to be happy?” I consider the answers given in three key texts from the psychoanalytic tradition, Daniel Kahneman’s <i>Thinking</i>, <i>Fast and Slow</i>, Sigmund Freud’s <i>Civilization and its Discontents</i>, and Abraham Maslow’s <i>The Farther Reaches of Human Nature</i>. Based on a distinction between opposing forms of self-transcendence, ego-actualisation and ego-dissolution, the authors articulate the relation between self-transcendence and happiness in different, but equally unsatisfactory, ways. In all three texts, a dominant ideological framing is discernible, which prioritises the present/positive and ignores the work of the absent/negative, ironically leaving us with a sense of futility concerning the pursuit of happiness. I propose that an approach influenced by Lacanian ideas, which acknowledges the role played by unhappiness in producing happiness, plausibly challenges the traditional conception of happiness that places it out of human reach as the effect of a perfectly self-transcendent state. Instead, understood as the effect of resistance to the notion of self-transcendence as self-perfection, happiness, while still difficult to achieve because it requires another kind of self-transcendence, becomes attainable here and now by ordinary individuals. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T20:57:35Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6aa93d9cc9fc4076984d1926c7178011 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2409-9287 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T14:06:36Z |
| publishDate | 2023-10-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Philosophies |
| spelling | doaj.art-6aa93d9cc9fc4076984d1926c71780112024-04-03T10:16:51ZengMDPI AGPhilosophies2409-92872023-10-01859810.3390/philosophies8050098Self-Transcendence and the Pursuit of HappinessAndrea Hurst0Department of Philosophy, Nelson Mandela University, Gqeberha 6001, South AfricaThis philosophical investigation is motivated by the common association between happiness and self-transcendence, and a question posed by Freud: “Why is it so hard for men to be happy?” I consider the answers given in three key texts from the psychoanalytic tradition, Daniel Kahneman’s <i>Thinking</i>, <i>Fast and Slow</i>, Sigmund Freud’s <i>Civilization and its Discontents</i>, and Abraham Maslow’s <i>The Farther Reaches of Human Nature</i>. Based on a distinction between opposing forms of self-transcendence, ego-actualisation and ego-dissolution, the authors articulate the relation between self-transcendence and happiness in different, but equally unsatisfactory, ways. In all three texts, a dominant ideological framing is discernible, which prioritises the present/positive and ignores the work of the absent/negative, ironically leaving us with a sense of futility concerning the pursuit of happiness. I propose that an approach influenced by Lacanian ideas, which acknowledges the role played by unhappiness in producing happiness, plausibly challenges the traditional conception of happiness that places it out of human reach as the effect of a perfectly self-transcendent state. Instead, understood as the effect of resistance to the notion of self-transcendence as self-perfection, happiness, while still difficult to achieve because it requires another kind of self-transcendence, becomes attainable here and now by ordinary individuals.https://www.mdpi.com/2409-9287/8/5/98self-transcendencehappinessKahnemanFreudMaslowLacan |
| spellingShingle | Andrea Hurst Self-Transcendence and the Pursuit of Happiness Philosophies self-transcendence happiness Kahneman Freud Maslow Lacan |
| title | Self-Transcendence and the Pursuit of Happiness |
| title_full | Self-Transcendence and the Pursuit of Happiness |
| title_fullStr | Self-Transcendence and the Pursuit of Happiness |
| title_full_unstemmed | Self-Transcendence and the Pursuit of Happiness |
| title_short | Self-Transcendence and the Pursuit of Happiness |
| title_sort | self transcendence and the pursuit of happiness |
| topic | self-transcendence happiness Kahneman Freud Maslow Lacan |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2409-9287/8/5/98 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT andreahurst selftranscendenceandthepursuitofhappiness |