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Professor of happiness

French psychiatrist Christophe Andre a self-confessed pessimist, unlocks the mystery of what makes us happy.

What about now? Do you experience moments of happiness?
"It's hard work but it's pleasant. You've got to put your mind to it. Working on happiness acts as an anti-depressant.

"You can spend an evening with friends and only realize once you get home that you had a good time. That means you've missed your moments of happiness. You need to realize that there are many opportunities to be happy. You have to realize: This is enjoyable, this is a nice moment, I'm having fun, this is a little bubble of happiness. I know people who have a nice weekend and cannot be happy because on Sunday afternoon they're already -starting to think about going to work on Monday. And at work they're thinking they're not happy because they don't see their children enough. Those people never have their minds in the present. You have to tell yourself: I'm going to enjoy this for a moment. My child is here and I'm going to stop thinking about my work. I'm emptying my mind and listening to what my child has to say.

"This can be learned. The English call it 'mindfulness.' Concentrating helps; meditation is very good. It takes hard work every day, but it works. Happiness can be learned. It's within reach. When I get too nervous, too excited, too eager, then I know I need to rest and take a walk. When I walk, I need to stop occasionally and look around. Look and be open; absorb nature.

Happiness is about the little things. Happiness tends to be calm and peaceful. You don't jump up and down with happiness, but with joy. Yes, there is such a thing as intense happiness, but it doesn't happen often in one's life. Striving toward absolute, huge, oceanic happiness, le bonheur fou, can be discouraging and distract you from little happiness."

André can provide a definition of "Happiness" with a capital "H"—in his book Vivre Heureux, he writes, "The experience of Happiness exceeds that of pleasure; it inundates the personality, escapes its control and limits, both psychologically and physically"—but it is clear that is not how he likes to address the topic. "Would you like another cup of coffee?" he asks, thus guiding me back to a modest yet tangible experience of happiness.

André jumps from topic to topic, from little to big happiness, from evolution to practical life lessons, from art to rugby.

Among leftist intellectuals in France, happiness gets a bad rap. In Vivre Heureux, André notes that the deadly sin of happiness according to these critics is petit bourgeois. Marcel Proust was gentler: Happiness was good for the body but bad for creativity. And any French intellectual worth his salt thinks happiness is selfish, for how can you be happy in an unhappy world?

André likes to quote playwright Henrik Ibsen: "To crave for happiness in this world is simply to be possessed by a spirit of revolt." André believes the root of the problem is that happiness dissolves differences between people, and French intellectuals, or the people who claim they are intellectuals, are afraid of being swallowed up in the mass of office clerks. "If a society places great emphasis on happiness being something anyone can achieve," he says, "then those people who are always searching for a way to be different can do nothing but criticize and reject this striving toward universal happiness."

Why has there been such a strong focus on being happy and living a good and conscious life in recent years?
"The interest in happiness emerged at the same time as the interest in health. Now that Westerners don't have to worry as much about pure survival, they're much more interested in the quality of life. But there's also a long-term trend here. Happiness also is part of democratization. Since the 18th century, everyone has a right to happiness. The American Constitution speaks of the pursuit of happiness.

"Nowadays, happiness is a topic addressed by the consumer society. Happiness is everywhere, which of course leads to a deeper interest. This is undoubtedly because the need for meaning is more keenly felt since the role of religion has declined."

What are the indispensable ingredients for happiness?
"Food and shelter are absolute conditions, of course. I distinguish between poverty and misery such as I have seen in Africa. You can still experience moments of happiness in conditions of poverty, but not in misery: it's a near-constant wasting away. Human beings are social animals, so our ties to other people are important. And we are children of nature. Many happy moments are experienced in the outdoors. It's no accident that in Christian heaven, we see our loved ones, friends and family again, and that this takes place in a natural setting of bubbling mountain streams and grassy meadows, the Garden of Eden.

Has there been progress in happiness? Are we happier than we were 100 years ago?
"The social sciences have been working with indicators of happiness for more than 30 years. All the studies find that people are reporting increasing levels of happiness. On average, Americans are happier than Europeans, and Northern Europeans are happier than Southern Europeans. The West is aging, and the majority of older people say they're happier than they did in the past. They also understand happiness better, because they understand what is and isn't important."

"There are plenty of objective reasons, too: In the Western world, illness, violence and war determine our chances of happiness less than they did in the past.

"And then of course we have drugs to fight depression. Prozac doesn't make you happy, but it does make you less unhappy. It decreases negative feelings so there's more room for experiencing happiness. I see that my patients suffer less when they're given good medication. Now, as an individual you have to work hard for -moments of -happiness. I don't rule out the possibility that in 20 years there will be other serotonin-based drugs that will take over that function.

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