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The surprising science of happiness - Nancy Etcoff

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TED Talk

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Cognitive researcher Nancy Etcoff looks at happiness -- the ways we try to achieve and increase it, the way it's untethered to our real circumstances, and its surprising effect on our bodies.

Etcoff concedes that psychology hasn’t really focused on happiness in any meaningful way until very recently. Instead, she says, its goal has been what Freud called “ordinary misery.” What do you think Freud meant by “ordinary misery,” and what point is Etcoff trying to make about the relationship between misery and happiness? Do you agree with her?

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  • Speaker Nancy Etcoff

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