Chapters authored
True Happiness as a Shortcut to Mental Health: A New Theory of Psychopathology and Psychotherapy Based on Aristotle’s Ethics and Evolutionary Science
In this chapter, we propose that pathologies can be understood as chronic excess or lack of emotions, which in essence, in our view, refer to the presence of “vicious” or frequent lack of evaluations about reality; which would generally occur due to the absence of wisdom or rationality. We also suggest that true happiness, to be experienced consistently, depends on putting into practice knowledge that reflects reality reasonably. In this sense, we hypothesize that the essence of pathologies is associated with the absence of a level of knowledge that reflects reality reasonably well or recurrent failures to act based on this knowledge, that is, lack of the habit of acting rationally; and that the understanding and pursuit of true happiness, in turn, can serve as a shortcut to exit the psychopathological condition, as (1) it provides greater engagement in the therapeutic process, as it would be the kind of pleasure that every human being ultimately seeks; and (2) because the pursuit of true happiness leads us to be more and more successful in our interactions with reality, feeling appropriate emotions for each context, instead of feeling, or not feeling, certain emotions chronically.
Part of the book: Counseling and Therapy