The Origins of Unhappiness: A New Understanding of Personal Distress

by David Smail

It is the main argument of this book that emotional and psychological distress is often brought about through the operation of social-environmental powers which have their origin at a considerable distance from those ultimately subjected to them. On the whole, psychology has concerned itself very little with the field of power which stretches beyond our immediate relations with each other, and this has led to serious limitations on the explanatory power of the theories it has produced. To illustrate this, typical cases of patient distress in the 1980s are examined. The decade when the right-wing of politics proclaimed there was no such thing as society gave rise to psychological distress across social classes, as long-standing societal institutions were dismantled.This is as much a work of sociology, politics, and philosophy, as it is of psychology. Fundamentals of an environmental understanding of distress are outlined. A person is the interaction of a body with the environment. The environment is structured by material power. Power may be coercive, economic, or ideological. Power operates at a varying distance from the person. It is always experienced proximally, but may well originate distally.The operation of power also means the ability of therapy to deal with distress is limited. Therapy essentially consists of three potentially effective provision of comfort; clarification; and encouragement in the use of available powers and resources.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Mental Health, Self Help

252 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 1999

Reviews

[Professor_lgd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have stumbled upon Smail through a lecture by critical theorist Mark Fisher and if you are familiar with Fishers work, you will recognize a lot of his positions on the mental health industry in this book.

Honestly, I don't understand how this book manages to stay on the fringes of psychological and critical theory. Smail really grasps and exposes the ideological function of the whole field of psychiatry/ psychology, namely: to shift the burden of responsibility for psychological pain onto the victim, who is actually rather a victim of societal forces, which he has essentially no control over. Through artificially narrowing the theoretical scope which therapy works with, namely on the individual and his immediate relationships, it excludes the larger societal, cultural and economic context in which he or she has been brought up, formed and which he or she is required to navigate. Smail goes even further than that and tries to - in my opinion quite convincingly - redefine what a personality actually is; namely, a personality, Smail argues, i s to a large extent nothing more than the accepted modes of conduct, language, beliefs, etc ... of the environment he happens to live in.

Smail is preoccupied with power in this book. He sees society as a deterministic matrix of individuals who are mere "mediators" of power; the more distal the powers, the stronger they usually are and the more they influence (read: determine) our behaviour, belief and desire on a more proximal level. What he achieves thereby is to enable the sufferers of "mental illness", family dysfunction, poverty, etc ... to stop blaming themselves for their misery, to stop looking within themselves or to their immediate circumstances for the causes of their problems and to start considering them as epiphenomena of bigger societal powers such as business interests, politics, indeed, class warfare.

His outlook can definitely seem discouraging. He does away with the notion that any form of therapy which doesn't actually enable the "patient", or rather the person, to gain some leverage in the larger context of the societal power struggle to capitalize on, as essentially nothing more than providing comfort (and thus, nothing a good friend couldn't provide). But his sober analysis also, at least to me, seems closer to the truth of the matter and importantly, it denies the basic tenets of many forms of therapy and of psychiatry, which are in essence nothing more than an instrument for the powers that be, which are so often felt as invalidating and as a form of victim blaming.

[Richard Whittall · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an immense work, and perhaps no more vital to understand what is going on today. While I disagree with Smail on a few points, particularly involving some aspects of personal agency, this I think is a deeply effective criticisms of psychotherapy, and devastating in particular for cognitive therapies.

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

A government bureaucrat that could offer you happiness on tap if he could only control the political system as well.

[Martin O'Regan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked because it provided me with orientation regarding modern psychology. Many queries I have had were shared by Smail.

[Oğulcan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bana göre yazar oldukça mantıklı argümanlar sunarak neden mutsuz olduğumuzu açıkladı. Bunu yaparken de farklı filozof ve yazarlardan da destek aldı. Özellikle Marx'ın yabancılaşma kavramı ve Foucault'un gözetim kavramlarına aşina olmanız kitabı okurken size fayda sağlayacaktır.
Mutsuzluğun iki ana kaynağının olduğu ve bunların içsel ve dışsal açıdan ayırt etmek gerektiğinin açıklamasıydı bir nevi. İçsel olarak tabi ki bizi biz yapan değerler olarak aile, toplum ve geleneklerimizi öne çıkarırken dışsal olarak tanımlayabileceğimiz konular ise öncelikle okul, tüketim toplumu ve mevcut ideolojik aygıtları öne çıkarabiliriz.
Yazarın bir İngiliz olmasından dolayıyla Thatcher döneminden sonra oluşan ekonomik ideolojinin, tüketim toplumunun hatta ergenlik ve orta yaş krizi gibi olguların bireyin üzerinde baskısı ve oluşturduğu yetersizlik hissini de çok yalın bir şekilde açıkladığını düşünmekteyim.
Son olarak ailenin yarattığı tahribat ve bunun omuzlarımızda ömrümüz boyunca taşımamız kısmı beni oldukça düşünceye itti.

[Iain Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book exploring power, and our experience of it, and how that shapes our lives. The author suggests that distant forces of power that we cannot even see have a much larger impact on our lives than sources of power closer to us.

I would say it is quite a depressing read in many ways, not least because it is still very accurate even though it was written in the 90s. Quite dense and philosophical, it is nonetheless and engaging read if you are interested in the subject, and the examples of clients he has interacted with are particularly vivid and eye opening. However, despite his stated goal of accessibility, the book is incredibly verbose and academic, which I think is very unfortunate, as the people likely to benefit most will struggle to engage with it.

[Annalisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very interesting up until the last chapter, and then I literally couldn’t finish.