What is Sophie offering? And is it anything to do with health? In an illness-led service such as the British NHS, happiness seems like an accidental consequence of lack of illness, rather than something for which the doctor could, or even should, aim. Happiness might be the stuff of escapism, of Mills and Boon fantasy, or of religious zealotry, but not of the clinic or everyday life. Or so it might seem. Argyle (1997) has argued that happiness is an important determinant of long-term health. Happiness is also the single most important determinant of quality of life according to a panel of UK residents brought together to develop the WHO International Quality of Life instrument (Skevington, Mac Arthur & Somerset, 1997).

How important happiness is, what constitutes happiness, and whether or not its absence should make us change our lives, are all questions that can only be answered in relation to our personal values. What to a psychotherapist might be hedonism might to his or her client be the activity that makes life worth living.

Stories of happiness

Long-term therapy requires some theory of what it takes to be a person – a theory of human nature (Trigg, 1999).