Empirical research is not of much help when it comes to issues which are culturally mediated because the culture you live in, will, to a large degree, determine the results of empirical research. In a largely chaotic Western society, where there is no real social cohesion left, and people have become islands onto themselves, of course the despairing are the most honest, and those who appear happy are the most deluded. But as Kierkegaard said, better to despair and be aware that you are despairing, than to despair and think yourself happy. Better to be awake and know that you are starving, than to be starving and dream that you are feasting - for the food in your dreams may taste well, but it shall not nourish your body.

I grew up around a lot of religious people, and still am good friends with one now, and whenever shit happens to him, he goes all hardcore into it, and I of course just see it as his form of coping. He likes the way certain power words sound, and certain ideas makes him feel, so he's just manipulating his feelings with connotative language, and self-elevating beliefs. — Wosret

And non-religious people are also coping (and deluding themselves) by being unbelievers. Non-religious people are afraid of ever being held accountable, so their refusal to believe in a Creator is just the manifestation of their fear of responsibility. They just don't want to be responsible, and so they're afraid of judgement more than they're afraid of death. For this reason, they find comfort in the belief that there is no God - they would exchange the non-existence of God for the existence of death. Death is afterall a good thing for them, it's freedom, without ever being held accountable for your actions in the world. Morally disgusting if you ask me. People ought to be held accountable for their actions.

I firmly believe that delusions of varying degrees are necessary to maintain a psychological equilibrium.

Freud introduced the idea of repression, and although he was wrong on many, many accounts, repression and anxiety are two of the most outstanding contributions he had to the field of psychoanalysis and psychiatry/psychology in general.

Then you have Zapffe, who clearly had influence from Freud, and thought that most people deal with the every day by three psychological methods: Isolation, Attachment, and Distraction. Those who cannot bend their minds to these methods and see through them have a fourth option, Sublimation, in which the individual lives in a general angst or melancholy with sporadic intervals of extreme, passionate work.

Heidegger thought that we were Being-Towards-Death, and that a fundamental structure of the human condition was anxiety, or "angst".

Later, we have Becker who was influenced by Freud, Rank, and others, and developed a proto-theory to Terror Management Theory, in which death is an ever-present threat to our psyche and must be repressed by joining into a life-long, almost cult-like exaltation of hero characters. He further developed his work by theorizing that one of the, if not the, prime reason for human behavior was to elevate and to continue to elevate self-esteem and the feeling of worth, despite inhabiting a body that on average is worth less than a dollar.

So, in summary, we have a human being who is assaulted by external forces outside of his control, forced to "grow up" (which means to hide one's scars) and represses the anxiety of death, loss, and the evil forces external to him by isolating himself from the evil forces, ignoring them and distracting oneself with entertainment (from video games to shopping), or desperately attaching himself to a icon or an idol for comfort and psychological support. All of this occurs in the day-to-day basis, and we become "comfortably uncomfortable" until we die.

death is an ever-present threat to our psyche — darthbarracuda

Yes, death is an ever-present threat to people's psyche, because unlike Socrates, they have not yet realised that the immoral life is not worth living to begin with, and hence, the threat of impiety, and of being immoral, always looms greater than the threat of death. Thus Socrates said "it is not difficult to avoid death gentlemen; it is much more difficult to avoid wickedness, for it runs faster than death!"

The moral of the story is that you should be afraid of being immoral and doing wrong. That way, you will never fear, nor be concerned about death but all your effort shall turn towards leading a moral existence. In religious terms, fear God, and you will not fear death anymore.

Whether delusions are necessary for happiness, and whether depressed people are more accurate and honest in their perceptions, not sure. Probably sometimes yes, perhaps sometimes not. The big danger is believing one's own bullshit--something that is very easy to begin doing without being aware of it.

We are thrust into a world that was never organized for our personal happiness -- a thing we all desire greatly. Sometimes the only way we can get through the day is to shield ourselves from the savagery of existence by some pleasant illusions. For instance, if a couple is poor, has 7 children to take care of, and all the necessary hard work and poverty threatens to smother one, then it is helpful to hold on to the delusion/illusion/truth (take your pick) that one's sacrifices will lead to a better, and good life, for one's children.

Maybe one is middle aged, depressed, and taking stock; perhaps in the harsh light of a ruthless self-examination one can find no significant achievements, no meritorious labor, no beneficial consequences to one's life. Overly negative conclusions are no better than overly positive ones. Whether one ends up thinking that one's life has been a total waste, a flop, or instead thinks that one has had a career of simply incredible accomplishment and high value may both be wrong.

A more balanced view of one's self, one's history, one's performance, will generally reveal a mix of successes and failures and a mix of assets and liabilities from the very beginning. Maybe finishing college with a C average [which you never planned on attending anyway] was a big achievement. Magna cum laude would have been nice, but hey -- it was a miracle you finished high school, let alone finishing college. Maybe, given your inherently unstable personality, you accomplished much in holding a few really good jobs, even if they didn't last more than a few years and might have turned into a career had you been someone else. Maybe with your early adult criminal record (armed robbery, assault, bribery, etc.) you accomplished olympic gold in just staying out of prison and holding a job for the last 20 years.

There are some depressed leftist guys I know who run a radical bookstore. I have liked and admired these men for... 30 years, but a more depressing, darker, thoroughly discouraged and discouraging group of people you will not find. Their analysis of capitalist society is in many ways accurate, except that they have come to view everything in such negative terms that they can no longer see anything but conspiracies. The milk of human kindness has soured.

These guys desperately need some helpful delusions, and fast.

I confess I find my corner of Western society perplexingly unchaotic. Social cohesion continues in spite of everything. When the bastards in high places cut benefits, we provide food banks and charity shops. When They decimate adult education we make U3As to provide our own. Pace Agustino this is mostly done by kindly agnostics who believe in civil society. I wish they would stop so the revolution can get started - then I find I've turned into one of these civilians myself. Oddly enough, it makes me happier, doing stuff with other people. I worry that it can't be good for us.

I was unaware that unbelievers were opposed to justice, and only don't believe in religion, because then they get away with all of their live's injustices when they die, rather than rotting in hell. It all makes sense to me now!

I don't really buy it. Who can judge that sort of thing without inconsistency or circularity? Andrew Solomon likes to say that the opposite of depression isn't happiness, it's vitality. Lying takes more energy than telling the truth, so I'm willing to buy that part, but not the delusion part... unless being deluded is too much work for the whiny assholes too!

I mostly don't trust the people judging such a thing. If the judges were depressed then maybe... but if they were mentally healthy, who's to say that they aren't just deluding themselves into seeing whatever they want to!

Yet another loaded title again.

Have you stopped beating your wife? Yes or no?

A good dose of Stoicism might help you get through your day.

You may want to try defining "happiness" before you take Wosret's bait and loaded question.

Reagan. You must be referring to Reagan. At least if you are American. Not sure if you are European instead.

Once again, a good dose of Stoicism might help out the situations that you described.

You have jumped to a lot of conclusions without justify any of them.

You would be better off to construct short sweet syllogisms and stick to that.

This would at least force you to provide some support as you go along.

All men are mortal.

Socrates was a man.

Therefore Socrates was mortal.

Great words :up:

Living in a fool's paradise is a well-known phrase. Does that mean intelligent people reside in hell?

I don't know. Perhaps to see happiness and beauty in the world is foolish and naive BUT it could also be that the beautiful wonders of this world are only accesible to fools and the wise sages are left to gaze upon, without the liberty to avoid, the darker, disgusting nature of reality.

I've said this ad nauseam and will repeat this again so kindly prepare yourself with a barf bag or an antiemetic medication.

Truth, despite its exalted position if philosophers are to be believed, doesn't always guarantee happiness and the converse is also true. So, some may be of the opinion the path to truth and the path to happiness are one and the journey is exhilarating but on some occasions we're faced with a fork in the trail - one path leads to the truth but suffering and the other path leads to happiness but falsehoods (delusions). A decision is required and neither option is satisfying but only one path may be chosen.

Some opt for delusions and are happy. Others go for truth and suffer for it.

What would be your choice?

1. Truth? To suffer as payment. Will the satisfaction/joy of knowledge/wisdom compensate for the pain the knowledge brings?

2. Delusional happiness? Happy fool! Will your happiness be a sufficient counterpoise to your ignorance? Is this real happiness?

3. Discover and tell me I'm wrong about this. I'd really like some well-reasoned input on this.

Thank you.

happiness — TheMadFool

Life’s object must be mental happiness,
For thoughts are all we can think, feel, or sense.
Aim for this euphoric state of well-being,
For true paradise is a state of mind.

Happiness is a way of life that celebrates
A living aliveness—that then opens gates
To further adventure, friendship, and delights,
To joy, success, triumph, and greater heights.

happiness, joy
girl for a boy

we all seek it
disagree? not a bit

it's worth more
than the bestest whore

to the lustful sailor
with unquenchend ardor

all I'm saying
what everybody's doing

sometimes a choice
truth or rejoice

fool or wise
pain or paradise

you're right
joy is light

pain is avoided
truth is discarded

meaningless afterall
death comes to all

truth please forget
joy the best target

Happiness is fiction. No one truly wants this psychotic concept. or needs it .

Matter of fact if you were indeed happy for more than 20 minutes. Your family and friends would commit you to the nearest psyche ward.

@OP
I haven't read enough, but my personal pet theory has probably been regurgitated endlessly in the relevant literature. Here it is anyway.

Our intellect has historically emerged from filtration process that favors long term methodical behavior vs short term reactions. The reason is simple - chaos perseveres, but it forms nothing permanent to speak of, which means that it has no historical significance. Short term reactions are too inefficient for the long haul and don't produce sustainable presence. So, long term planning is necessary.

That is why, our mind is wired to search the space of possible outcomes, such that our reactions travel some path to a projected result that we desire. However, our long term goals are not always obtainable, or not even well defined. For unobtainable, you might want your loved ones to live with you forever, or to end all suffering around the world. For undefined, you might want to have a goal that surpasses all other goals, i.e. to achieve ultimate value without knowing what this value is.

Our mind is wired to experience gratification from the devising of a viable plan, and angst from the failure to do so. That is what compels a person into an intellectual frenzy to find means of attainment. But for some goals, such as those which are impossible, contradictory, or insufficiently specified, the mind becomes stuck in an operational deficit. To use an analogy, the planning behaves like a program taking all cpu time, preventing any other work from taking place, and preventing the termination of its own rampart operation.

When the inability to cope with a problem becomes evident on a subconscious level, yet the problem cannot be re-specified at the moment, the mind deliberately distorts the state space of projected outcomes (topologically or the valuation function) in order to relieve the subject. Without this defensive mechanic, thinking would cease immediately. In fact most problems statements are contradictory and unsolvable. For example - sustained health is impossible, because you are dying machinery since the day you were born. Personal participation (freedom) is limited, etc. The mechanism has planted roots in our culture, since most problems in life are hard. There are many extreme delusions, that are essentially necessary and have permeated the cultural mosaic of our societies.

I think that being happy without delusions is impossible, because your mind cannot cope with the realization that its priorities are impossible to satisfy and because your intellect is essentially self-conflicting. Happy or not, as long as you are exercising some semblance of thought process, your knowledge is partially repressed.

And non-religious people are also coping (and deluding themselves) by being unbelievers. Non-religious people are afraid of ever being held accountable, so their refusal to believe in a Creator is just the manifestation of their fear of responsibility. They just don't want to be responsible, and so they're afraid of judgement more than they're afraid of death. — Agustino

Self-judgement can be much harsher than the judgement of a benevolent creator. Most theists that I have known, seemed more relieved from their flawed human nature then I am.

I have long held that the world drives us all crazy, and causes us to be deluded, and it has long been noticed that people's feelings get in the way of their accuracy. This is why emotion and reason are so often contrasted, because preference, hope and fear get in the way of things, and we tell ourselves stories to calm down, or feel better when bad unfair stuff happens. — Wosret

We don't need delusions to be happy. We don't always lie to ourselves. We do expect the truth as being lied to makes us unhappy. It is only when the truth isn't consoling that we engage in delusional beliefs. We are perfectly happy to lie to ourselves when the truth isn't consoling but others are not allowed to lie to us.

Hmmm.. I think delusions are actually destructive towards happiness. Delusions don't make one happy, but rather ignorant. Ignorance is a sort of limbo, wherein one is not truly happy nor truly sad. For most people this state of ignorance cannot be maintained forever. Reality always finds a way. When reality starts catching up to a psyche that has grown too attached to its delusions, thats when one will reap the consequences, usually with interest. I believe this is closely linked to depression.