A review by jameskeates
The Happiness Hypothesis: Putting Ancient Wisdom to the Test of Modern Science by Jonathan Haidt

3.0

Not a self-help book, but a review of the psychological studies of happiness (the subtitle says it all) and how they link to common themes from the past, Eastern (Buddhism and Hinduism) and Western (Stoic and Epicurean philosophy). An interesting read when approached from that point of view, although I would like to see an updated edition (it was written in 2006), perhaps touching on social media but more importantly looking at how the quoted results hold up as psychology undergoes a replication crisis that undermines some of its most famous results. Still, I think Haidt successfully makes the case for positive psychology: that science can help us to lead a fulfilling or happy life as well as treat diseases. The insight into the weird tricks psychologists must devise to create "blind" experiments is also fascinating.

(For a self-help book, albeit one Haidt might find inclines too strongly to the Stoic position, I can recommend Derren Brown's Happy.)