Serious books inevitably start with an instigating question, and the question that "Explaining Unhappiness" answers is this: What are you afraid would happen if you weren't unhappy? Why? Because this is the question that everybody asks all their lives, without ever fully realizing it. We are deeply engaged in the assumptions contained within it. What are we assuming when we ask that question? First, we're suggesting that it is possible to be happy regardless of the present circumstances in which we find ourselves-that unhappiness doesn't just happen, but that it may be self-imposed. Further,...

Serious books inevitably start with an instigating question, and the question that "Explaining Unhappiness" answers is this: What are you afraid would happen if you weren't unhappy? Why? Because this is the question that everybody asks all their lives, without ever fully realizing it. We are deeply engaged in the assumptions contained within it. What are we assuming when we ask that question? First, we're suggesting that it is possible to be happy regardless of the present circumstances in which we find ourselves-that unhappiness doesn't just happen, but that it may be self-imposed. Further,...