I talked about happiness on these pages a few weeks ago. We will then have understood, I hope, that I was not talking about the quest for beatitude, but more simply about a pleasant state of life which makes you want to get up in the morning and which does not prevent you from sleeping in the evening. .
My teachers of happiness – Foglia, Maupassant, Einstein and Pierre Fortin – cannot, in fact, be compared to gurus inviting us to exchange lucidity for blind happiness. They know, in other words, and they taught me, that the world is not a rose garden, that unhappiness inhabits it and that the happiness that is possible there has nothing to do with it. permanent ecstasy. Having a meaningful life, protected as much as possible from great misfortunes and sprinkled with occasional joys, is already a lot.
On this basis, I have long looked down on positive psychology, which claims to provide recipes for happiness. To be clear about it, I nevertheless explored it only to come away, in the end, with nothing but solid disappointment.
I only found collections of banalities, even falsehoods, expressed with unjustified assurance and scientific pretension. Measuring happiness using brain imaging, really? This is not serious.
The worst, however, in these works remains the apology for narcissism on which they are based. To be happy, they say, we should love ourselves, not worry about others unless it contributes to our happiness, and close ourselves off from the misfortunes of the world or accept them without letting ourselves be shaken.
At this stage, we go beyond narcissism to sink into solipsism, that is to say, according to the definition of Little Robert, this “theory according to which there is no other reality for the thinking subject than itself”. To be happy like that, that is to say without others and without the world, no thank you.
In The frenzy of happiness(L’Observatoire, 2023, 384 pages), the French philosopher Luc Ferry engages in a radical critique of this contemporary quest whose quintessence is found in works on positive psychology, personal development and stoic wisdom brought up to date , notably in the books of the French philosophers Fabrice Midal and Frédéric Lenoir and in those of the psychiatrist Christophe André.
A brilliant popularizer, a supporter of critical rationalism inspired by Kant and the philosophers of the Enlightenment, a republican spirit with Gaullist and social democratic tendencies, Ferry exposes the philosophical indigence of the new gurus of happiness. Above all, he masterfully pleads for “a truly good life” which does not seek happiness at all costs, but rather freedom, intelligence, courage, love and meaning. If controversy scares you, move on; Ferry hits hard.
In a world where the great narratives that give meaning – nationalism, communism and Christianity – have collapsed under the combined attacks of capitalism and cultural leftism opposed to traditions, the quest for individual happiness, here and now, is essential .
Everything that can obstruct it – work, academic effort, the authority of science and thought, others, external reality – must be neutralized. It is only by working on oneself, “in the simple narcissistic listening to one’s inner life,” Ferry mischievously notes, that one can hope to find happiness.
In Greek mythology, however, the philosopher recalls, Narcissus, in love with his own image, ends badly, dying mad and absolutely unhappy. The message is therefore clear. “The truth,” Ferry summarizes, “is that, unless we sink into pathological narcissism, psychotic egocentrism, our moments of joy depend above all on others and the state of the world. »
This last element discredits the “junk stoicism” of contemporary gurus according to which happiness does not depend on external reality, but on the way we look at it. It would be enough, in this logic which also borrows from the theories of Spinoza, to say “yes” to all of reality, against which we can do nothing anyway, to preserve our inner harmony.
“Slave morality”, exclaims Ferry, who rather locates wisdom and human dignity in the capacity of the free man “to say “no” to reality, “no” to injustice and ignominy , which supposes that we never resign ourselves to the unacceptable. To love everything, in a world of suffering and injustice, is not wise, but crazy and cowardly.
Navel-gazing is tempting, Ferry acknowledges, but “if we want our world to retain a minimum of humanity, concern for others must sometimes prevail over concern for oneself.” Maintained with disregard for the common good and the general interest, happiness is immoral.
Columnist (Presence Info, Game), essayist and poet, Louis Cornellier teaches literature at college.