Promises of a good and happy life, in this world or the next, have always been central to human experience. Answers to the question, âhow do I achieve a happy life, how do I live the good life ,â have been proffered by religious leaders, philosophers, politicians, writers, and, since the establishment of Western scholarship (Ahmed , 2004, 2010a, 2010b; Berlant , 2011; Davies, 2015; Ehrenreich , 2009; Horowitz, 2018; McMahon, 2006). Positivity, especially positive emotional states, holds varied appeals for human communities and its social leaders, often as tools for political control and social management (Ahmed, 2004, 2010a, 2010b; Binkley, 2014; Cabanas , 2016; McMahon, 2006; Yakushko, 2018a).
This book addresses a specific emphasis on positivity (e.g., happiness , optimism , flourishing , well-being ) based on Western scholarly theories, empirical data, and scientific rhetoric, which reflect a concerted focus on defining, predicting and controlling human emotional experiences. This work expands on contemporary contributions to the study of enforced happiness and compulsory optimism in the cultural, political, economic, and social spheres (Ahmed , 2010a, 2010b; Ehrenreich , 2009; Horowitz, 2018; McMahon, 2006; Merskin , 2011; Yakushko & Blodgett, 2018). Specifically, I examine the origins and expressions of obligatory positivity in Western scientific practices. I explore not only ways in which this scholarly emphasis on happiness has been shaped by the broader culture (Ahmed, 2010a, 2010b; Berlant , 2011; Binkley , 2014), but also seek to document how cultural rhetoric about human well-being has become driven by âaccording-to-researchâ ideologies. Science and scientism have become among the most influential forces in determining human values and experiences in Western cultures. The guidelines for what constitute a happy or good life stems from scholarly productions rather than sacred texts. These empirically driven admonitions often (through various methods) deny, negate, or villify the full spectrum of human emotional experience while simultaneously requiring a disavowal of human social context. In short, human beings are shamed and chided toward always feeling cheerful, regardless of their individual, social or relational circumstance. They are shaped into Pollyannas.
This scholarly emphasis on achieving happiness through enforced positive emotional states and sets of behavior , I argue, is made in service of maintaining the socio-political status quo. According to this perspective, happiness and well-being are treated as distinct and measurable individual states. Moreover, human affective reactions are presented as disconnected from human rights while injustice and suffering are minimized or denied. In turn, access to happiness is promoted as supposedly achievable by those who possess particular characteristics based on either superior personal predispositions (e.g., divinely or biologically ordained goodness ) or concerted behavioral changes (e.g., self-control , determined efforts to use empirical self-help techniques). These human capacities to achieve optimism , I note, are often claimed by scientists to be lacking for entire groups (e.g., women, racial minorities) because of their supposed biological deficiencies or failures to develop control over personal affective states. Lastly, what constitutes happiness is claimed to be knowable exclusively through scientific discovery rather than critical recognition of differing standpoints.
The history of many European civilizations is marked by the accentuation of happiness alongside the denial justice and punishment of those who express unhappiness (Ahmed , 2010a; Ehrenreich, 2010; Horowitz, 2018; Zinn , 2010). In this book I will discuss efforts to demonize negative emotions and those who hold them, such as the witch hunts, which occurred during the so-called Renaissance and Enlightenment eras and were fueled by the privileged scientific theories of the day. I will show that the emphasis on demonizing negative human states and enforcing positivity was further prescribed through Western scientific evolutionary theories of human behavior (e.g., Darwinism , eugenics ) and persists today in contemporary Western scientific psychology movements such as âpositive psychology .â I refer to this production of empirical theories and practices related to enforced and a-contextual positivity as scientific Pollyannaism .
Many historians note that throughout modern Western history positivity and happiness have been the enforced through fundamentalist religions (Ehrenreich , 2009; Horowitz, 2018; McMahon, 2006). Karl Marx referred to religion as an âopiate ,â designed to pacify and numb; a drugged state, which becomes a symptom and a symbol of a life lived under oppressive conditions. According to Marx (1843/1970),
Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo. (Introduction, para. 4â5)
As noted in chapters below, use of religious scholarly rhetoric to promote utopian visions of life, whether in earthly state or the afterlife, fueled concerted efforts to rid humanity of all sources of supposed unhappiness . These rationales were central to Inquisition manuals such as the Malleus Malificarum , which was grounded in the sciences of its day (e.g., Hellenistic philosophy, medical knowledge). Today, Christian fundamentalism continues to promote positivity as central to both mortal existence and the afterlife (Ehrenreich , 2009). For example, Joel Osteen (2011), a mega-church pastor and a conservative U.S. evangelical Christian star, proclaims in his many sermons and books on happiness (here his Every Day a Friday: How to Be Happier 7 Days a Week):
It is your choice to be happy. Make up your mind to enjoy this day, to have a blessed, prosperous, victorious year. You may have some setbacks and your circumstances may change, but donât let that change your mind. Keep it set to happiness . (p. 5)
Osteenâs positivity-focused sermons and books not only draw on prosperity Gospel interpretations of the Bible but also make many references to empirical positivity research. âAcco...