Happiness The Elusive Emotion free essay sample

An exploration of the views of psychologists on achieving happiness. This paper presents the thesis that happiness is an emotion that is defined according to a persons needs, motivations and personality. The paper explores the views of psychologists on achieving happiness and finds that emotions are an essential part of our nature and may be either helpful or destructive depending on how we deal with them. The paper draws the conclusion that the essence of happiness is a conscious appreciation of the rightness of being, a state and not a permanent trait. The paper also notes that the psychoanalyst has become the secular priest who will take you to happiness. This seems to many a cynical quote that undermines the dream of most people -to be happy. Throughout life people work through various pursuits trying to determine how they will gain satisfaction. Will it be through money, power, love or morality and will their ultimate aim then make them happy. We will write a custom essay sample on Happiness: The Elusive Emotion or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The elusiveness of the emotion that is determined by the individual personality and the frame of reference in which the emotion is taken has confused researchers around the world in all times. The Dalai Lama insisted that the only way to achieve real happiness is by making others happy- an irony. (Cutler and Lama 1998) Some people teach that happiness is achieved through extreme asceticism, while this statement is then contradicted in television commercials that suggest that a certain product is the key to happiness. Based on an analysis of thousands of surveys, psychologist Steven Reiss, Ph.D., suggests that we can achieve happiness by clarifying our values and then living accordingly.