Reading 'Happiness': CBT and the Layard thesis

摘要

This review essay examines an important recent contribution from an economist Richard Layard to debates about the social and economic sources of mental distress and ways of responding to the latter. His book Happiness is one of many contributions from him about these topics. It provides a persuasive case for 'upstream' causes of mental health problems, which includes a critique of modern consumerism. A much less persuasive case is made though for therapeutic social engineering in response to psychological casualties of these socio-economic forces.