Science of Happiness, The: Unlocking the Mysteries of Mood Book

Is sadness a disease? Science writer Stephen Braun looks at the mystery of depression and the search for soma in The Science of Happiness. This brief, engaging and personal view of mood and its influence on all aspects of our lives travels from drug company labs to Zen retreats in an effort to open up the black box containing temperament. His writing is powerfully charming, even while delving into deep philosophical issues and little-understood scientific theories. Is crippling depression related to "mere" unhappiness? Do good and bad moods provide evolutionary advantage? Does it make sense for us to use Prozac and all its friends and relations to enhance normal moods? Braun finds these questions important and fascinating, and the reader quickly comes to share these feelings. While neither as fawning as Listening to Prozac (one chapter is titled "Listening to Depression") nor as shrill as the anti-Prozac Scientologists, he does find much of value on both sides of the argument. Likening his own use of various antidepressants to correction of mild visual impairment, he considers the possibility of better lives for most of us while still acknowledging Aldous Huxley's dire predictions of worldwide drug slavery in Brave New World. What'll it be? Nobody really knows, but Braun is feeling pretty good about it. --Rob LightnerRead More