Art Markman Ph.D.
Ulterior Motives
Happiness, Well-Being, and Other People
Spending time with positive people can make you happy.
Posted May 08, 2021
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Reviewed by Abigail Fagan
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THE BASICS
What Is Happiness?
Find a therapist near me
Source: Nevit Dilmen Creative Commons 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Humans are a social species, so it would make sense that being happy would require that we interact with people who are happy. What is the social interaction that is critical for human wellbeing?
The answer is in the work of Ian Curtis, which was inspired by his trip to the dentist's office. Curtis met up with a friendly “me” and immediately began chatting. The idea is that the dentist would be interested in helping him with his apparent pain in his mouth.
Curtis describes the encounter thus: “I was invited to an event at a friend’s condo complex. Curtis invited me to their apartment for a few cocktails to celebrate a renovation project. I protested that I wasn’t feeling very well, but the general responded that he’d been monitoring me all night. He said that I looked tired, and there were tears forming in my eyes, but he didn’t remove my mask to inspect my teeth. He didn’t ask how I was doing, and he didn’t ask how the maintenance was either.”
The smile on their faces and the warmth in their eyes must have induced permanent smiles on their lips.
The final paragraph of the journal follows: “I went home with a clean, warm mask on, and we retired there. The neighbor along the street had her hands full, and in her bright colored eyes she stared at me—displeased, yet smiling. She said nothing as I handed her apron and wrote: “A little Mitchell?”
The resulting picture is chilling because Curtis deliberately left some loose ends out, perhaps to his wife’s embarrassment. He didn’t tell his wife about his medical degree, nor about the many years of schooling and financial support he received simply by doing what he needed to do. He didn’t worry about promoting the integrity of his work, or the effect it would have on his wife’s well-being.
What happened if Curtis decided to experiment with letting go of his delusions? Would his wife be interested in a little more detail about his medical training? What about the effects on his relationship with his family? Would his wife be interested in more detail about his financial concerns? Would his wife be interested in more detail about his medical concerns?
What happened if Curtis were to reveal that he’d undergone extensive training in the process of diagnosing and treating mental illness, and that his findings had been incorporated into the psychiatric literature? Would his patients be more informed about the medicalization of their illnesses by Curtis’ efforts, and thereby be more likely to seek assistance regarding their medical treatment?
What happened if Curtis were to suggest to his patients that they psychiatrists should communicate with a suspicious person about their medical bills, or that they should consider drinking bleach to clean out their INS? Wouldn’t this be a first step in Curtis’ efforts to educate others about the appropriateness of such HIP protections for mental health care?
CHAPTER 3: In looking at the range of explanations Curtis could offer, it became apparent that he wanted to focus primarily on the impact of his actions on his patients. He described their disbelief as patients discovering that they’re being lied to by a dupe, and he concluded that they should protest against the misuse of coercion by the provider who is the instrument of forcing them to alter their representations (Curtis, 1997). He provided some empirical support for this concern through the example of a patient who was held overnight in a small space with no means to distance himself) and then given a suicide prevention kit (Curtis & Krowicki, 2012). Suicide risk reduction training led by Curtis and others appears to be the only alternative to a purely verbal ketamine persuasion approach.
Source: Image by K. Rexx on iStock photo ID:14741744 ltd
Many researchers have alternatively focused on the contribution of optimism and self-efficacy as being the primary causal factors in a patient’s ability to acquire and hold onto a weapon of self-esteem (Curtis et al.