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There's an article on CNN Health today that discusses a man who describes himself as an "expert" on happiness. He recently published a book Happiness: A History, and basically says that the more you look for and desire happiness, the less happy you actually are. What disturbs me about this analysis is that it makes absolutely no connection to biology! Isn't there some kind of connection between hormones, genetics, and the ability to be happy? Or at least not be miserable? Isn't that what anti-depressants are all about?

The author doesn't attempt to define happiness and says even he can't achieve it, but all this blathering seems to prove his point correct - the more you talk about happiness, the more elusive it becomes. It just doesn't seem like his analysis about happiness is a correct or at all "scientific" one. What exactly was the point of him writing this if not to illuminate the obvious? Why exclude science from a conversation in which science could be of use? Frustrating.