The Happiness Illusion

How the media sold us a fairytale

Luke Hockley, Nadi Fadina, Luke Hockley, Nadi Fadina

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781317579823
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Mental Health in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

The West has never been more affluent yet the use of anti-depressants is on the increase to the extent that the World Health Organisation has declared it a major source of concern. How has this state of affairs come about and what can be done? Television and advertising media seem to know. Wherever we look they offer countless remedies for our current situation - unfortunately none of them seem to work.

The Happiness Illusion explores how the metaphorical insights of fairy-tales have been literalised and turned into commodities. In so doing, their ability to educate and entertain has largely been lost. Instead advertising and television sell us products that offer to magically transform the way we look, how we age, where we live –both in the city and the countryside, the possibility of new jobs, and so forth. All of these are supposed to make us happy. But despite the allure of 'retail therapy' modern magic has lost its spell.

What then are the sources of happiness in our contemporary society? Through a series of fairy-tales The Happiness Illusion: How the media sold us a fairytale looks at topics such as age, gender, marriage and rom-coms, Nordic Noir and the representations of therapy on television. In doing so it explores alternative ways to relate to the world in a symbolic and less literal manner – it suggests that happiness comes by making sure we don't fall under the spell of the illusionary promises of contemporary television and advertising. Instead, happiness comes from being ourselves – warts and all. This book will be of interest to Jungian academics, film, media and cultural studies academics, social psychologists and their students, as well as reaching out to those interested in fairy-tale studies, psychotherapists and educated cinema goers.

Subject Index

• Abraham 185–6
• absolutism 65
• absurdity 182, 186, 188
• acquisition, as proxy for individual development 100–1
• actors/actresses, earnings 155
• actors’ bodies 79
• Adam, androgyny 56
• adaptation 75, 101, 190–1
• adults, magical objects 19–20
• advertising: consumer capitalism 97–9
  • cosmetics 157
  • creating perfection 83
  • illusions of happiness 102
  • as myth 101
  • postmodern 97–9
• aesthetic moments 22
• aesthetic norms, and aging beauty 85
• age 37, 84–5
• agency 28
• aging: and gender performativity 86–7
  • inevitability 86
  • successful 81
• aging beauty myth 7
  • aesthetic norms 85
  • archetype and unconscious 82–7
  • artificiality 84
  • believability 77–9
  • conflicting ideologies 85
  • context and overview 75
  • crone archetype 82
  • embodied archetypes 79–82
  • frailty of 86
  • race/ethnicity 82
  • summary and conclusions 87
• aging beauty, pathologization of 84
• aging transitions, techniques 77–8
• AIDA model (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) 97
• Aladdin 89–90
• alchemy 2
• American Declaration of Independence 91
• Andersen, H.C. 142, 181
• androgyny 6, 14–15, 16, 36
  • acceptabili...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: Once upon a time . . .
• Section I . . . There was a Prince/ss . . .
• Section II The Quest: the Old Wise Helper and the Magical Object
• Section III May all your Wishes come True
• Author Index
• Subject Index