Happiness
BMJ 2005; 331 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.331.7531.1489 (Published 22 December 2005) Cite this as: BMJ 2005;331:1489
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Staff satisfaction surveys are carried out annually in all NHS
Trusts in the Uk.Little notice appears to be taken of the unhappiness
revealed in many of these surveys.May I suggest how a use of these surveys
could result in a marked improvement in an NHS which is manifestly
dysfunctional
It seems obvious that people working in an organisation within which it is
possible to do their jobs well,
will be satisfied in their work.
In the light of this,I would like to suggest a single target for the
NHS,and that is that each Trust achieve an adequate staff satisfaction
score.
The result of this is that notice would have to be taken of those working
at the patient end of the service, It would be more than suprisung if a
better NHS did not result
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests
Dear Editor (Deputy)
BMJ,
I do not know the context for your philosophical article about
happiness.
Is it connected with the recent allegations against NHS doctors that they
have become greedy, too well paid but lazy and somewhat disloyal to to
the profession?
If so I have some things to share with you.
Mahathma Gandhi once said that there is enough for every ones needs,
but the whole world is not enough for one man's greed.
About greed being at the root of all unhappiness it has been preached
well by Lord Buddha thousands of years ago.
The very first stanza of Ishaavaasyopanishad says that every thing in
the universe belongs to the Lord (Isha, Isa) and is god's own
manifestation and the man is supposed to enjoy what is given to him with
out jealousy, greed,or discontentment and should not resort to stealing
some one else's share.
In fact this kind of Philosophy has made Indians never go for aggression
in thousands of years, many Indians shun fame and riches and forgo prizes
like Nobel Prize, do not resort to patenting some of the epoch making
concepts and treasures like ancient medicine or traditional wisdom.
The richest man in the world also is contented only when he sees his
toddlers enjoying a nice siesta. The quality of this happiness is no
different from a the happiness derived by a man living by roadside in a
Metro city.
But who is going to tell the doctors in the corporate-health -care
industry that they should tighten their belt a little. They need to be
less greedy and derive happiness with out causing misery to the needy.
The needy patients, rich or poor, insured or uninsured,in the East or
West, to day are feeling that they are an exploited lot, and only the
Almighty can redeem them from the skilled healers.
Thanks for opening up this philosophical angle in this gadget-oriented
health care delivery system sans mercy.
Dr. T. K. Nagabhushana
Novi. MI.
E-mail: drtknag@yahoo.com
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests
I couldn't access the responses so I'm not sure if this point has
already been raised:
Not only can happiness not be bought with money, it is unclear how
much we can acquire it by following the author's suggestions, because
happiness is also inherited. In the Minnesota study of twins reared
together and apart, Lykken D and Tellegen A (Happiness is a stochastic
phenomenon. Psychological Science 1996; 7: 186-189) found that the best
predictor of one's self-reported happiness at a given time is one's own
report on the same measure ten years previously, and that the happiness of
one's identical twin at the first time point does almost as well (80% of
the correlation achieved by two self-report measures).
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests
Dear colleagues:
Happiness in my point of view is a real state in which
individuals keep their health, because with health you can live your life
as you want when you have other conditions. You need the means to make your
happiness. The means is the money obtained by your motivated work. But that is not
all.
You need love (family, friends, children and daughters, spouse).
And finally, you need a philosophy of life.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests
I have been reading the editorial on Happiness and the responses with
deep interest. Having just finished writing a book for OUP on long-term
illness in general, I am now starting work on a book about happiness (or
unhappiness) in illness. I want to explore the factors that make it easier
or more difficult to experience happiness if one has to cope with a long-
term illness.
Most readers will accept that they know some people with such an
illness who seem to be happy a good deal of the time and some who are
fairly miserable. What is the difference?
Any suggestions or contibutions would be very much appreciated.
Frankie Campling
frankie@campling.force9.co.uk
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests
I am glad that Tony Delamothe's editorial about Happiness has
generated so much discussion. I am happy about this because I believe that
the attainment of Happiness is THE purpose of human life.
The state of well-being and contentment which we know as Happiness is
expressed in degrees of manifestation depending on the character of our
personal development, from the brief periods of joy that we experience to
the permanent state of 'cosmic consciousness' and beyond.
The key to our understanding of Happiness lies in the word
'contentment'. We know this from our individual, even if short-lived,
experiences of periods of contentment. Tony Delamothe's editorial cites
what have been found to be associated with Happiness, such as family life,
social connections, employment, choice, leisure, human relationships and
the belief that one's political participation counts. However, it is
evident that these, in themselves, could not produce contentment: they
must be of a certain character and content to do so. Family life that is
marked by hostility and abuse could not possibly make one happy.
The editorial appears to imply that having money does not make a
significant contribution to a person's happiness in the long term.
Spiritual balance is a state of invulnerability, moral as well as
material. Being unable to pay one's way through life is not a desirable
state of being; so having money - or equivalent media of exchange - does
make a significant contribution to our happiness. Solving our personal
problems (and thus improving our personal circumstances) whilst rendering
constructive service to humankind is the balanced expression of
spirituality that makes us increasingly happy.
Happiness is a continually-evolving state of spiritual balance, the
principal manifestation of the balanced development of the spiritual,
mental and physical sides of our being. May we all achieve ever greater
degrees of Happiness.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests
Dear Editor,
As Delamothe points out, humans everywhere are about equally happy:
rich or poor, First World or Third World, healthy or disabled. We evolved
this way - as social animals who cannot cooperate for long with anyone who
is annoyingly cheerful or depressingly sad.
Our brains are designed to make us feel good when things help our
survival, and to feel bad when events damage our longer term interests.
However, after our dose of reward or punishment we quickly get back on an
even keel, so we can restore effective social relationships.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests
One of my patients says that happiness is being able to sleep soundly
two days in one week. This patient has chronic insomnia and truly is happy when
the above comes true. Some chronic diseases, not all diseases, tend to
make people unhappy. We will make people happier if we could find ways to
treat those conditions effectively.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests
Tony Delamothe has certainly performed a service by starting
discussion on the subject of happiness.
There is a role for money in happiness, and it is what Charles
Dickens wisely put into the mouth of Mr Micawber in his novel David
Copperfield. “Income twenty pounds and expenditure nineteen pounds,
nineteen shillings and sixpence: result happiness. Income twenty pounds,
and expenditure twenty pounds and sixpence: result misery.”
In other words, control of debt is an important part of personal
contentment in the world we live in.
I am also reminded, by Tony Delamothe’s reference to “a loving
relationship”, of the time some 20 years ago when my wife and I ran the
marriage preparation classes in our church. Over a 5 session course, we
discussed the subjects of similar beliefs, loving commitment to each
other, sexual aspects of the relationship, children, and money management.
These are all areas where many marriages have foundered. Similarly, they
are all areas which affect personal contentment.
The apostle Paul said in his letter to the Philippians, when he was
facing death for his beliefs, that he had learned to be content whatever
the circumstances. He knew what it was to be in need, and to have plenty.
He had learned the secret of being content in any and every situation,
whether well fed or hungry, and whether living in plenty or in want.
Jeremiah Burroughs, one of the great Puritans, wrote “The Rare Jewel of
Christian Contentment” in which he expounded the theme further for his
readers.
Contentment and happiness go to the heart of our basic beliefs. The
whole of life is involved. If life is centred on the self, and personal
feelings, there is little chance of happiness. Self-giving love (Greek:
agape) is what the first Christians promoted, on the basis of Christ’s
example, and lasting contentment is unlikely to come in its absence.
Competing interests:
As a Christian, I am reasonably content!
Competing interests: No competing interests
Happiness and mind: self contradictory words
Respected sir,
I have read many responses mentioning such as happiness as the state of
mind ,happiness as mental attribute.
I don’t want to offend the writers but I totally disagree with all this. I
strongly believe that happiness and mind cannot go together. They are
absolutely two opposite poles of the magnet and cannot come together and I
will try to prove my belief with the hard facts which I, you and everyone
see in daily life.
Has anyone seen any cow or dog eating (SSRTIs), or mood elevators or for
the fact any bird getting insomnia? Have we ever asked why? Any cat
requiring to watch movie or for the sake of information a donkey or a mule
requiring a break to refresh its mind? The answers for all this question
everyone knows. Very obvious no. then as we ourselves so called
intellectuals ever asked why? We don’t bother this trivial things?
Have we ever noticed that when we are watching a suspense thriller we are
totally engrossed and that time the mind does not think. All the major
senses are engrossed in movie so mind is not there so we are happy or
momentarily happy. While playing video games same phenomenon occurs so
mind is missing. If any of the readers have doubt they can check
themselves. Do we ever noticed that in sleep mind is not working except in
dreams so we feel happy after getting sound sleep for the proof don’t
sleep for 2 nights.
Mind can live only in two states brooding over the past so guilt and
anticipating about future so anxiety. when we are in present there is no
mind, as in watching movies or while playing videogame.
So destruction of the mind, total annihilation nothing less than that can
give pure happiness other wise whole life will pass looking for it and
will never achieve true happiness.
Mind should come into play when it is needed not when it is not needed.
“ So for the conclusion – Today is gift from God that is why it is called
PRESENT”
Live in present.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests