1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910483190403321

Autore

Zevnik Luka

Titolo

Critical Perspectives in Happiness Research : The Birth of Modern Happiness / / by Luka Zevnik

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cham : , : Springer International Publishing : , : Imprint : Springer, , 2014

ISBN

3-319-04403-6

Edizione

[1st ed. 2014.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (165 p.)

Disciplina

150.1988

152.42

300

306

Soggetti

Quality of life

Positive psychology

Quality of Life Research

Positive Psychology

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction: Towards a Critical Perspective in Happiness Research -- Chapter 1. Overview of Happiness Research -- Chapter 2. Happiness, Culture and Relations of Power -- Chapter 3. The Return to Happiness: A New Interdisciplinary Approach to Happiness Research -- Chapter 4. Middle Ages: The Time before Happiness -- Chapter 5. The Origins of Happiness in Renaissance and Reformation -- Chapter 6. The Birth of Modern Happiness -- Chapter 7. The Evolution of Happiness: Development of Happiness from its Birth to its Contemporary Manifestations -- Chapter 8. Conclusion: Modernization as the Collective Pursuit of Happiness. .

Sommario/riassunto

This book presents an interdisciplinary exploration of the origins of happiness in the modern Western culture and makes the argument that happiness is not universal but is instead a culturally and historically specific experience, characteristic only to the Western world. It begins with an overview of the main research approaches to happiness and then studies the important but elusive theme in the context of culture



and relations of power. The second part of the book analyses the social, religious, ethical and political processes that lead to the emergence of the experience of happiness, including consumer culture in contemporary societies. It presents an analysis of the medieval Christian experience which concludes that the modern experience of happiness only emerged in the 17th and 18th century, when the ideal of human existence increasingly started to be pursued in the present life. In its conclusion, this book explores the concept of modernization as the collective pursuit of happiness.