The Mega Marketing Of Depression

Lyubomirsky defines happiness as the “experience of joy, contentment, or positive well-being, combined with a sense that one’s life is good, meaningful, and worthwhile” (184). She challenges the myths that people can find happiness by changing their circumstances and that people either are “born happy or unhappy” (186). Happiness is not something that can be found or something that not everyone can have. People make their own happiness, despite the difficulties they may face. Happiness comes by “choosing to change and manage your state of mind” (185). Lyubomirsky gives cases of people who are happy even though they suffer from losses and setbacks. These are the people whose circumstances should make them unhappy, but their intentional actions bring them joy. She also gives cases of people who have not suffered any major losses but are still unhappy because they may see events negatively and feel helpless before them. Lyubomirsky asserts that “changes in our circumstances, no matter how positive and stunning, actually have little bearing on our well-being” (186). Even though a person’s circumstances may be positive, those circumstances do not make them happy. Lyubomirsky uses a Subjective Happiness Scale to measure happiness, which takes the average of numerical answers to four questions. She argues that in order to become happier, “you need to determine your present personal happiness level, which will provide your first estimate of your happiness

Happiness is an essential goal for most people. From books and expensive classes that teach people how to achieve happiness to the fundamental right of “the pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of Independence, the importance of happiness is evident in society. This causes the rise to two fundamental questions: “How does one attain happiness?” and “,How does happiness create a meaningful life?” Both happiness and living a meaningful life are achieved simultaneously. The search for happiness and the factors that make it brings meaning to life. Happiness can stem from several factors such as wisdom and knowledge, savoring life and its experiences, and even suffering and pain. Analyzing these factors brings meaning to one’s life.

As human beings we are naturally wired to seek happiness wherever we can find it. When we don’t, we may enter a stage of anger, anxiety, or distress. That’s why it is our personal goal to look for happiness and preserve it once we acquire it. Many have explored ways to find what triggers this feeling of “happiness” and what we can do to keep it; nonetheless, the evidence found is hardly sufficient to make a public statement on how to find happiness. For this reason, most of the time we speculate what might provoke this feeling of contentment. “Happiness is a glass half empty,” an essay written by Oliver Burkeman, highlights the importance of happiness and discloses how we can find delight through unorthodox methods. The prime objective of this piece of writing is to inform the audience about the effect of happiness on their lives and how their usual attempts of becoming happier can sabotage achieving this feeling. Furthermore, he wants to promote the benefits of pessimism and describe how it can help us in the long run. The author utilizes pronouns, logos, and pathos in order to prove his point and draw the audience into his essay, in an attempt of making them reconsider the way they live their lives and adopt this new pessimistic way that would greatly boost their level of happiness.

One concept of happiness is understanding one’s identity, background, and not lose sight of who you are. This concept is an American thing because in a country full of immigrants knowing who you are as a person is important, and to not forget that even you are when you the ethnic minority in a particular area is even more crucial. Moreover, in America, there are always questions like who you are and how does your cultural background influence you. These questions guide people to explore their identity and find out who they are. This concept is also an Asian thing because the mothers in The Joy Luck Club tells many stories throughout the novel to help their daughters understand who they are.

In Ethan Watters’ essay, “The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan,” he has a discussion with Dr. Laurence Kirmayer regarding Kirmayer’s invitation to the International Consensus Group on Depression and Anxiety. In their discussion Kirmayer talks about how the basis of his invitation was on the notion that he as the director of the Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry at McGill could add to the answer the large pharmaceutical giant, GlaxoSmithKline was looking for. The question at hand was how culture influences the illness experience, but more specifically how depression is influenced by culture in Japan. If the conference was a success, the company would be able to enter and expand into a market worth billions of dollars. The reason that the cultural aspect of depression was very important was because in countries like Japan, the American conception of depression was taken as a more serious illness, rivaling heights of diseases like schizophrenia. The company hoped that by somehow changing the Japan’s perception of the illness from being something social or moral to the American conception where expressing the illness to others is considered being strong person rather than being a weak one, that their drug Paxil would be able to sell to the market, which is where the scientific and economic aspects of depression come into effect. The scientific and economic aspects take place due to the intentions of the company to sell the drug, and the drug’s ability to help

As human beings we are naturally wired to seek happiness wherever we can find it. When we don’t, we may enter a stage of anger, anxiety, or distress. That’s why it is our personal goal to look for happiness and preserve it once we acquire it. Many have explored ways to find what triggers this feeling of “happiness” and what we can do to keep it; nonetheless, the evidence found is hardly sufficient to make a public statement on how to find happiness. For this reason, most of the time we speculate what might provoke this feeling of contentment. “Happiness is a glass half empty,” an essay written by Oliver Burkeman, highlights the importance of happiness and discloses how we can find delight through unorthodox methods. The prime objective of this piece of writing is to inform the audience about the effect of happiness on their lives and how their usual attempts of becoming happier can sabotage achieving this feeling. Furthermore, he wants to promote the benefits of pessimism and describe how it can help us in the long run. The author utilizes pronouns, logos, and pathos in order to prove his point and draw the audience into his essay, in an attempt of making them reconsider the way they live their lives and adopt this new pessimistic way that would greatly boost their level of happiness.

It is difficult to determine how much autonomy we have over our well-being unless we know how to define it. Well-being can be defined as what makes one comfortable in their respective cultural and societal norms. Watters showcases cultural differences through Kirmayer when

The market can often face influences and change from numerous companies all at once. Companies aiming to introduce a product to a new population face the hurdle of influencing the market to create a need for their product, if there is not one already. In Ethan Watters’ essay, The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan, Watters addresses the methods with which GlaxoSmithKline introduces and changes the very culture of the Japanese in order to create a need for their antidepressant drug, Paxil. Though GlaxoSmithKline’s efforts to create a need for their drug, a cultural shift occurred, one in which changed the very way of life for the Japanese. As stated in Watters’ essay, the executives did not present themselves as people only driven by profits

Predetermined realities are realities that people blindly accept and inhabit as their own. These false realities constrict the expression of life by clouding an individual’s purpose and guiding them to live systematically. Too often individuals neglect to navigate their lives around their own wants, beliefs and values. Instead of making independent decisions, decisions are made based on the opinions or pressures from others, suppressing one’s authentic reality with societal norms. These norms and expectations set forth by authorities inadvertently transform an individual’s reality into an unoriginal, predetermined reality. In other words, there is an infinite number of aesthetically eccentric views, but we are given binoculars to only focus on what others want us to see. Unfortunately, these societal interferences are nearly unavoidable. Cathy Davidson’s essay, “Project Classroom Makeover,” presents how the enforcement of mundane standardization in American education systems leads to the decrease of original talents and creativity. Similarly, Ethan Watters’ essay, “The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan,” portrays the ways in which pharmaceutical companies attempt to standardize depression, shifting the reality of an entire culture, for the sake of their profit. Lastly, in “The Mind’s Eye,” Oliver Sacks illustrates how reality differs between individuals by using stories from individuals with blindness. Evidently, reality is in the

Culture often has large differences in a society in terms of common interest, belief and sense of the real word. Definition of culture is the way of life, especially the general customs and beliefs, of a particular group of people at a particular time. The majority of world population, even some uncivilized, primitive villages in Africa, has owned culture that member of the society comply and give them guidelines for the way to live a life. In Ethan Watters’ text “The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan”, he talks about how different culture brought difference view about the same incident, depression, mental illness and its medication. He explains that Japanese culture has a different understanding and definition of depression and mental illness as compared with American culture. In Japanese culture, doctors distinguish depression and mental illness as very rare and crucial matters that makes patients going to the mental hospital for over a year. In contrast, in American culture, everyone can get instant medical services about depression and mental illness whenever people need it. As a member of a culture, an individual’s life is affected by the culture since that culture is what he is living in, which causes people of each culture have their way to handle a matter. Unfortunately, when it comes to an opportunity about seeking profit, people or organizations who have power, like pharmaceutical companies, will try to bring a method that globalizes culture differences to

Humankind is always making improvements. Fire was discovered for warmth, and now humans have heaters that keep them even warmer. The shadows told people what time of the day it was, and now it can be found out instantly by looking at phones or watches. Many innovations have a positive impact on humans. However, there are some cases where it is not, or at least there isn’t a black-or-white categorization for it. These ideas can be seen through the close reading of the essays “The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan” by Ethan Watters, which focuses on the progress of the company GlaxoSmithKline spreading their antidepressants, and “The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food” by Michael Moss, which focuses on the progress of the quality

Even if we use the word “happiness” on daily basis, has anyone ever tried to define it? It’s harder than it seems. When do you feel happy? How is it when you feel happy? Is there any way to understand how much happiness to you experience? This is the main hypothesis of this paper – Can happiness or wellbeing be measured? And if it can be measured, how do we measure it? Happiness is feeling pleasure and enjoyment because of your life, situation (Meriam Webster). Pleasure and enjoyment are very subjective and means different things to different people. This is where the term subjective wellbeing comes from. There are a lot of things that can be included when measuring wellbeing. Various studies have been conducted to assess wellbeing and how does it affect other factors. For example Earlstin(1995) and later on Ferrer-i-Carbonell(2005) have examined the relationship between income and happiness. Gruber(2004) studies the relationship cigarette taxation and happier smokers. Richard, Clark, Gerogellis and Diener(2004) analyze the effect of unemployment on wellbeing.

I started to question about happiness in America after I saw a pattern in high school that students are often confused or stressed. I started out with the question, “why is it hard to be happy when being happy shouldn’t be that hard?” To answer these questions, I found Sophie Chan’s 2011 study, “Hong Kong Chinese community leaders’ perspectives on family health, happiness and harmony: a qualitative study.” This study would help answer questions on my audience’s curiosity about other countries happiness compared to the United States. Then I started to think that there were also other issues that friction with happiness in America and

In the essay “How to Choose Happiness,” Marie Kondo describes “tokimeku” as aspects of our life that helps us determine happiness. Kondo defines “to spark joy” is a way we find happiness through energy and devotion. She says as individuals we value more on buying new things and focusing on technologies. Consequently, Kondo says there are standards that don’t fulfill our happiness, such as earnings from our jobs, caring about our weight, and consuming different calories each day. Time is used to show own goals to please ourselves from determining our identity and showing determination in a way we want. Kondo proposes a concept to describe how “tokimeku” can help us with our lives by facing problems then seeking for solutions. For example, Kondo

The world seems to be a dark and unforgiving place, but happiness is hidden within. It is found in a beautiful view, an uplifting song, or a compliment from a friend. According to the Ted Talk video, The Habits of Happiness, Matthieu Ricard claims that everyone “has a deep, profound desire for well-being or happiness”(Ricard 2:39). Ricard uses the three techniques of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos to captivate and move his audience. With the use of metaphors, personal experiences, and even graphs Matthieu explained to his audience the full force and perception of the bendable word that is happiness. This Ted Talk dove into philosophical meaning on just how to achieve well-being, without having everything in the world.