Abstract

Research in Happiness

The social purpose of the practice of medicine is the promotion of happiness. Happiness presupposes freedom from fear and want, freedom from anxiety. Happiness is expressed by a state of physical and mental health. The statistics of suicide and crime might be another source for the study of unhappiness, though these incidents can be influenced by many complex factors difficult to evaluate. The material thus far available on this subject is so limited as to be inconclusive in almost every respect. However, it suggests a new aspect of medicine medical sociology, a systematic effort by physicians to analyze the social causes of unhappiness which influence the health of their patients, and to fight these causes by active participation in the political strife of their time and their social group.