Luka Zevnik - Critical Perspectives in Happiness Research: The Birth of Modern Happiness

Chapter 7: The Evolution of Happiness: Development of Happiness from its Birth to its Contemporary Manifestations

The Christian experience of sin marked the refusal/sacrifice of the self that preceeded the experience of Happiness can be seen as a period in the history of Western thought characterized by what could be called a “negative constitution of the subject.” Insofar as the birth of happiness was in large part constituted as a break away from the Christian experience of sin, the pursuit of happiness represents a refusal of this negative constitution of the subject. Instead, the experience of happiness from its initial eighteenth century outlook to its contemporary manifestations can be seen as closely connected to what Foucault (2000a) calls the positive constitution of the subject.