Are we adults?
Educating Desire: Moments of Shared Joy
Lecture by Lynne Segal
Debate
What is happiness? Where is it hiding? According to Lynne Segal, professor of Psychology and Gender Studies, it is useless to look for happiness alone. Only if we accept responsibility for the world we share, and the commitment to transform it can we be truly and radically happy. And this is the promise which the fact of becoming an adult should make tangible so that we become able to change the world we find into a world we contribute towards making.
Although our society has made a permanent advertising slogan out of the quest for, and promotion of happiness, the rates of depression and anxiety are continuing to rise and among young people as well. Where does happiness lie then? What is going wrong? Lynne Segal says the error consists in thinking that happiness is an individual concern and, moreover, that unless they participate in public life, people should not think they are happy or free. She calls for happiness based on moments of solidarity arising from collective claims and endeavours, for it is precisely by shedding the individualist standpoint and feeling that we are part of a social and political community that we can attain both personal happiness and the hope of building a better world.
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Lynne Segal
Educating Desire: Moments of Shared Joy
In this lecture, Lynne Segal, professor of Psychology and Gender Studies, calls for happiness based on moments of solidarity arising from collective claims and endeavours. Only if we accept responsibility for the world we share, and the commitment to transform it ...
