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Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy Paperback – January 20, 2009

by Eric G. Wilson (Author)

40 customer reviews

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We are addicted to happiness. More than any other generation, Americans today believe in the power of positive thinking. But who says we’re supposed to be happy? In Against Happiness, the scholar Eric G. Wilson argues that melancholia is necessary to any thriving culture, that it is the muse of great literature, painting, music, and innovation—and that it is the force underlying original insights.

So enough Prozac-ing of our brains. Let’s embrace our depressive side as the wellspring of creativity. It’s time to throw off the shackles of positivity and relish the blues thatmake us human.

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Product Details

Paperback: 176 pages
Publisher: Sarah Crichton Books; First Edition edition (January 20, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0374531668
ISBN-13: 978-0374531669
Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.5 x 7.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #61,144 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #217 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Mental Health > Emotions
- #254 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Anthropology > Cultural
- #270 in Books > Self-Help > Creativity

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Customer Reviews

3.4 out of 5 stars

5 star		30%
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3 star		10%
2 star		17%
1 star		15%

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

104 of 112 people found the following review helpful

The Muse- Melancholy

By Shalom Freedman HALL OF FAMETOP 1000 REVIEWER on February 7, 2008

Format: Hardcover

This book is in one sense a diatribe against the Happiness Industry , the whole Positive Psychology shtick, the mentality which says you have a right to happiness, and you should be happy, and if you are not happy something is wrong with you, and you must do everything possible to make yourself happy, and show the world that you are happy , because happiness is success. It is against the Culture of Superficiality which would make us all plastic robots pleasure- hooked forever.
On the other hand and more seriously it is a study of Melancholy and its uses in literary and artistic creation. This positive side of the work seems to me a much more persuasive than the attack on the Happiness Industry. My own sense is that there is so much suffering and pain in the world, and that each human being at some point or perhaps throughout their lives has so much of it, that it doesn't make much sense to attack those who are trying to alleviate that suffering. Or to put this another way. I don't buy the figure which is cited that eighty- five percent of Americans consider themselves happy, unless that is we combine that with another figure that ninety- five percent of people lie at one time or another. In any case this is pretty much irrelevant to the heart of this book which again provides examples of the way the use and transformation of Melancholy create great Art and Literature.
Wilson is not simplistically and stupidly advocating that people become depressed. He writes, "Depression (as I see it, at least) causes apathy in the face of this unease, lethargy approaching total paralysis, an inability to feel much of anything one way or another.Read more ›

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29 of 30 people found the following review helpful

Talking About The Big Pink Elephant In The Room

By SORE EYES on February 26, 2008

Format: Hardcover

After hearing an interview with this authour on NPR, I couldn't wait to read this book. Finally someone was talking about that big pink elephant in the room-America is obsessed with happiness and we'll do anything not to feel unhappy. There was an 800 percent increase in the use of anti-depressants in the US in four years.

Personally, I'm sick and tired of the happiness industry, so this book found the right audience. Against Happiness explores what's wrong with the happiness industry as well as what's right with feeling down. Wilson argues that melancholy does have it's use in life, particularly a life of literary and artistic creation.

Wilson does not advocate becoming depressed or suicidal to be creative. He writes, "Depression causes apathy in the face of this unease, lethargy approaching total paralysis, an inability to feel much of anything one way or another." On the other hand Wilson argues that melancholy generates "a turbulence of heart that results in an active questioning of the status quo, a perpetual longing to create new ways of being and seeing." In other words, hang on to your melancholy and listen to it. It's an important tool for development.

Wilson illustrates his theories with the lives and writings of authours like Keats and Blake. His literary analysis is very good and one of the outstanding features of this book.

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44 of 48 people found the following review helpful

Resisting our craving for certainty

By Kerry Walters VINE VOICE on February 18, 2008

Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase

In this wise (and at times irritating) little book, Eric Wilson asks readers to reflect on three things: first, that all of us read our experiences through a filter of abstractions and preconceptions that mold reality into what we want it to be; second, that the American consumerist, instant-gratification culture encourages us to fashion filters that breed a bovine contentment by devaluing anything that smacks of sadness and ignoring the darker, untamed aspects of human existence; and third, that our cultural obsession with certainty, clear classifications, and airtight definitions may be a sign of repressed anxiety.

Wilson argues that "melancholy," or a restless dissatisfaction with the status quo, serves as a check on our tendency to personal and social self-deception. Moreover, it weans us of our need for certainty by encouraging us to explore the "dark boundaries between opposites" (p. 73), thereby inviting "a vision of a healing third term" (p. 76) which embraces rather than denies ambiguity and discordance. The melancholic mood accommodates insight into the fact that the world isn't fixed, that beauty and all good things in life are possible only because they and we are transient, and that a human being is homo viator, a pilgrim open to possibilities because refusing to embrace false certainties. This "ironic" orientation to the world acknowledges the anxiety that impermanence and uncertainty bring, but also recognizes that the anxiety can go hand in hand with a sense of imaginative playfulness and profound gratitude.

Wilson insists that he's not trying to trivialize clinical depression or genuine joy.Read more ›

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63 of 77 people found the following review helpful

Brilliant in Parts, but Seriously Flawed

By B. Case TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on February 23, 2008

Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase

This is a small book with a simple thesis: the experience of melancholy is an essential part of the human condition--when it occurs, we should embrace it, not repress it. Wilson claims that if you eliminate melancholia either through medications (like Prozac), or through a forceful cultural bias toward perpetual happiness such as currently exists in America, then life ceases to be authentic, and society fails.

Much of the book is one long rant against a contemporary American culture that requires artificial happiness at all times. Wilson shows that our melancholic side is absolutely essential. He insists that melancholy is necessary to connect us to our fundamental self. He claims that to reject melancholy is to reject life.

Wilson writes: "A person seeking sleek comfort in this mysteriously mottled world--where love is always edged with resentment and baseness beds with grace--is necessarily required to perceive only small parts of the planet, those parts that fit into his preconceived mental grids... But some people strain all the time to break through their mental manacles, to cleanse the portals of their perceptions, and to see the universe as an ungraspable riddle, gorgeous and gross. Happy types, those Americans bent only on happiness and afraid of sadness, tend to forgo this labor. They sit safe in their cages. The sad ones, dissatisfied with the status quo, are more likely to beat against the bars" (p. 24). [Note: If you found this quote somewhat dense and difficult, be forewarned: this type of prose is typical of the entire volume. Although some of Wilson's writing is dynamic, rich, and lyrical, I often found it also turgid and unnecessarily arcane.Read more ›

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

Book presents very interesting ideas, but not really worth the time to...

The entire book is summed up in the first chapter, which is really the only chapter worth the time to read. Read more

Published 18 days ago by Thomas

An excellent inquisition into a much maligned though essential state...

An excellent inquisition into a much maligned though essential state of mind. My one little quibble would be how is it possible for Wilson, the head of a Literature department, to... Read more

Published 2 months ago by Scott Lidak

Five Stars

good

Published 2 months ago by Jae yu

Five Stars

Beautifully written. Nice prose.

Published 8 months ago by Amazon Customer

Looking for light!

Some truly pithy and convincing sections in this book; I just wish the total impact were a little lighter or inviting.
A pretty gloomy, but perhaps realistic outlook.

Published 10 months ago by William E. Biebel

Is this the first draft?

This book could be better if shortened by at least 50%. It looks to me like a rant in someone's private journal, a place where this sort of writing can be useful as an idea dump. Read more

Published 23 months ago by Amazon Customer

DEFINITELY WORTH IT!

Another phenomenal read.

I read more or less for my own work. I related to a lot of the contents within. Read more

Published on June 17, 2013 by Paige

Clarity and good editing are clearly underrated.

I didn't pay too much attention to the negative reviews here on Amazon before purchasing this book. The subject -- well, what I thought was the thesis of this book -- is endlessly... Read more

Published on January 8, 2013 by Dustin G. Rhodes

Food for heart and mind

An important book for people who see the limits of life as well as the possibilities. There is fertile soil in us all for melancholy. Read more

Published on March 13, 2012 by Christian R

Against "Against Happiness"

I am so sorry I didn't sample this book before purchasing it. From what I could glean, the author has padded a two-page essay with 161 pages of excess verbiage, thus milking a... Read more

Published on September 16, 2011 by Sue W Kirkham