The Agenda - Trudie Chalder interview "You can't experience happiness if you don't feel sadness" Jan 2020

You can't experience happiness if you don't feel sadness
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This is important because it is a good example of the wider problem with the BPS MUS, FND etc school of thought.

It is a banal soundbite that seems profound and meaningful at first glance but is deeply problematic when you give it some thought. Too many statements about disease are of this quality. "Software problems rather than hardware damage" for instance.

Happiness does not need sadness to be experienced. Knowing sadness may make you happy about different things but it is not neccessary to the experience.

The phrase also demonstrates the next problem we face. Everyone has experienced sadness (even if just colic as a baby :)) so they can argue that they are right because the phrase as it stands can't be proved, the goalposts can be changed at any time.

Not sure If I am being very clear. It is not against psychology or psychiatry, it is against triteness and sloppy thinking wherever it is found.
 
Mithriel said:
This is important because it is a good example of the wider problem with the BPS MUS, FND etc school of thought.

It is a banal soundbite that seems profound and meaningful at first glance but is deeply problematic when you give it some thought. Too many statements about disease are of this quality. "Software problems rather than hardware damage" for instance.

Happiness does not need sadness to be experienced. Knowing sadness may make you happy about different things but it is not neccessary to the experience.

The phrase also demonstrates the next problem we face. Everyone has experienced sadness (even if just colic as a baby :)) so they can argue that they are right because the phrase as it stands can't be proved, the goalposts can be changed at any time.

Not sure If I am being very clear. It is not against psychology or psychiatry, it is against triteness and sloppy thinking wherever it is found.
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Well said.
 
Invisible Woman said:
While I agree this doesn't have anything to do with ME per se, I think it says much about the mindset of some mental health professionals. Particularly those who are part of the current BPS school of thought i.e. you can selectively ignore the bio bit or equate correlation with causation.

In my, admittedly limited, experience of mental health professionals, they seem to believe their professional role gives them great insight into human nature and a deeper understanding of what it means to be human. in this case fortune cookie philosophy (good description @rvallee!) is cast to us as pearls are cast before swine.
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Yes, their explanations are a simplification of a complex combination of factors interacting to create depression.
This article about a woman whose particular genetics prevents her from feeling sadness and pain is an interesting counterpoint, I think
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/01/13/a-world-without-pain
 
Snow Leopard said:
Where can I find this miracle person who has never felt sadness?
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That looks like a different argument. Chalder seemed to suggest that it was a matter of logical necessity. Whether or not any person fulfilling the criteria exists, or has ever existed, would be a matter for investigation, though no answer to the problem would be obtained.
 
To parse the idea, I don't think experience of sadness is requisite to experience happiness.

However I'd postulate, appreciation of happiness is increased the deeper / more frequent the sadness experience.

I know I appreciate (emotionally) good (physical) days much more because I've had so many bad (physical) days.
 
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