The Happiness Fantasy

The author – a professor in the Stockholm Business School – takes a critical look at the origins and development of what he calls the current 'happiness fantasy' embodying the (masculine) American dream of authenticity and self-mastery through will-power and disciplined effort. Although he traces its origins to Huxley on human potential and Reich on sexuality and pleasure, he could also have mentioned the New Thought movement in terms of creative imagination, and existentialism for authenticity. There is much interesting material on Reich and his influence, including his relationship with Freud.

Major themes include narcissism, the appropriation of the happiness fantasy by corporations, the role of drugs both recreational and clinical, and the alpha male right to pleasure, epitomised in Berlusconi and Trump. Other figures discussed include Fritz Perls and Werner Erhard with their emphasis on emotional freedom and rejection of authority figures. Cederstrom rightly observes that the philosophy of Epicurus is about simple pleasures rather than excess, as every pleasure can be killed by overindulgence – the human organism eventually rejects it as with the man at Frenchman's Cove in Jamaica who aimed to drink his weight in champagne... Although he is not mentioned, Cederstrom's ideas on happiness have something in common with those of Richard Layard, and are critical of overemphasis on individualism. He suggests instead that a new happiness fantasy should go beyond the personal and be based on empathy and even vulnerability – a more feminine and concerned vision.