Happiness Throughout Life

Here’s an article about a book, the summation of a study of the lives of some male students at Harvard, starting in 1943 and continuing to the ends of their lives.

The book sounds well worth reading. A key idea is that a happy, secure childhood with loving parents is the best assurance of a happy life. But, that is no guarantee, and things can get better over time if you had a bad childhood.

The author didn’t start the study, but picked it up as a psychiatrist in the 60′s. He had been studying recovery from heroin addiction, and was interested in what coping strategies were effective.

The article doesn’t say too much about this, but I think this is the most important thing. OK, so shit happens, but what’s the most effective way to deal with it? It mentions a lot of the guys never learned to deal with anger, and that caused them terrible career trouble. That’s been my problem in a nutshell.