Altı temel duygudan biri olan mutluluk; öfke, korku, üzüntü, iğrenme ve kıskançlıktan farklı olarak bir pozitif duygu biçiminde karşımıza çıkmaktadır. Ulaşmak için çabaladığımız, bulduğumuzda kaybetmekten korktuğumuz ve kimilerine göre hayatımızı arayışında geçirdiğimiz bu duygu nedir? Tek bir tanımı ya da bir duruma atfedebileceğimiz açık bir anlamı var mıdır? Mutluluğa ulaşamamak mı bir patoloji göstergesidir yoksa daimi olarak mutluluk peşinde koşmak mı? Terapi odasında mutluluk nasıl karşımıza çıkar? Bu sorulara cevap bulmayı amaçladığımız makalemizde öncelikli olarak mutluluğu pozitif duygular temelinde ele alacak, sonrasında mutluluk kavramına daha yakından bakarak olası anlamları üzerinde duracağız. Bunun yanı sıra, mutluluk duygusu ile ilintili patolojilere kısaca değinerek terapi ortamında terapist ve danışan açısından bu duygunun nasıl yaşandığına ve ele alındığına yönelik çıkarımlarda bulunacağız.

There are lots of arguments why research on positive emotions were dominated by research on negative emotions. Fredrickson and Branigan (2001) reasoned that psychology traditionally focused on psychological problems so negative emotions have always been in the center of psychological research. Negative emotions produce strong, extreme and contextually inappropriate problems for individuals such as anxiety disorders, depression, eating disorders and sexual dysfunction, in extreme cases, suicide and violence. Although positive emotions underlies some psychological problems such as mania and drug abuse/addiction these problems are not captured enough attention by emotion researchers since negative emotions are believed to create more danger and problems for an individual and the society. A second argument behind the predominance of research on negative emotions was that there are more negative emotions than positive emotions. Positive emotions are fewer in number and they are diffuse (Fredrickson & Branigan, 2001). Positive emotions are not distinguishable by the automatic signals they produce. Moreover, in comparison with negative emotions which specific emotions produce specific facial expressions, positive emotions have one unique signal. Evolutionary explanations for positive emotions have intended to explain this imbalance between positive and negative emotions. Because there are more threats than the opportunities in the world, Nesse (1990) has proposed that there are more negative emotions than positive emotions. In addition, cost of failure in responding to a life threatening situation could be fatal whereas cost of failure in responding to a life opportunity would not be so harsh that evolutionarily, the differentiation of the positive emotions are not so significant as the negative emotions (Prato & John, 1991). Unlike the negative emotions such as anxiety, anger or sadness, positive emotions, in this case happiness, is not totally explained as a brief transitory emotion. Happiness would be conceptualized as an umbrella term which includes the two different meanings which are hold by two different traditional approaches (Power & Dangleish, 2008). One of these approaches is hedonic approach which describes happiness as a brief, transitory emotion and includes joy, amusement and ecstasy. Second approach considers happiness as a life satisfaction and mood-like state of continuing contentment, and it is called as a eudemonic approach. There are also disordered states of happiness. For example, anhedonia is recognized as a form of disordered state of happiness in which a person experiences an inability to experience pleasure (Meehl, 2001). It is characterized as reduced motivation and reported non-enjoyment of positive life experiences. Another state known as nostalgia, by conceptualizing with cognitive model; is simultaneous appraisals at the schematic level related to joy and sadness (Power & Dalgleish, 2008). In nostalgic states, an individual would be sad and happy at the same time. Similarly, homesickness is thought to be associated with problematic appraisals at the schematic level related to joy and sadness. Thurber (1995) found that homesickness was related with high attachment problems and separation anxiety. Hypomania and mania are characterized as elevation of mood, hyperactivity and grandiose ideas about the self, euphoric, rapid speech, increase sexual activity, inability to sleep, grandiose delusions (Power & Dangleish, 2008). If the role of happiness is interpreted from client’s point of view, it can be said that the vast majority of clients are deeply concerned with the problems of happiness and unhappiness. After all, a prominent reason for coming to the therapy is precisely that one does not feel happy. The client would like to be happier or at least less unhappy. Freud saw the therapy as successful if the patient after a completed analysis became able to work and to love. Yet, he did not have a faith in absolute happiness. Most of the Freud's colleagues in the psychoanalytic tradition seem to adopt a similar viewpoint that it may be possible to relieve the unhappiness and other kinds of suffering, but that does not mean as bringing about happiness. What we do in psychotherapy is replacing deep suffering with everyday problems (Jacobsen, 2007). However in therapy rooms we face with an expectation of patients to become happier that they have failed to achieve in their lives. However, Freud says ‘the aim of analysis is to transform hysterical suffering into common unhappiness.’ It does not sound very logical to offer common unhappiness to the clients who are seeking for happiness. In his book of Studies on Hysteria (1895), Freud says: When I have promised my patients help or improvement . . . I have often been faced by this objection: "Why, you tell me yourself that my illness is probably connected with my circumstances and the events of my life, [and that] you cannot alter these in any way. How do you propose to help me, then?" And I have been able to make this reply: "No doubt fate would find it easier than I do to relieve you of your illness. But you will be able to convince yourself that much will be gained if we succeed in transforming your hysterical misery into common unhappiness. [Thus] with a mental life that has been restored to health you will be better armed against that unhappiness (p.269). Although we have been trying to understand happiness from client’s point of view, we mostly discuss unhappiness. Unhappiness necessarily shows itself in the therapeutic process. But, happiness, the ultimate goal (!), is also seen among clients and it may tell a lot as we come up with it. For many, the very idea of happiness is viewed as a form of denial or delusion, perhaps a manic episode. The person in the manic episode is hyperactive, has elevated mood and grandiose ideas about the self. They often seem cheerful and optimistic when their mood is elevated and have an infectious joyfulness. Nevertheless, other individuals can be irritable rather than euphoric and their emotions can easily translate into anger (Power & Dalgleish, 2008). Secondly, a patient may use happiness as a repressive coping style which is the one that can be hardly detected. In Observations on Transference Love (1915), Freud emphasizes “There can be no doubt that the outbreak of a passionate demand for love is largely the work of resistance” (p.162) and claims “transference love is a particular expression of resistance” (p.163). Transference can be revealed as an easy way to obtain momentary happiness. Instead of working hard to reach the ‘real’ happiness, some clients may prefer (probably unconsciously) to play around the happiness they have in their hands. The experience of happiness from therapist’s point also becomes more of an issue. According to Greenberg and Paivio (2003), while working with emotions, therapists should pay attention to the fact that there are some specific characteristics of each emotion- sadness, anger, happiness and so forth- and there are different ways of dealing each. Pleasant emotions, such as interest/excitement, joy and love, are often end products of the process of resolving other emotional states. Appreciation, for instance, often can only emerge after resentment has been expressed and acknowledged. That is to say, the pleasant emotions play as antidotes to the unpleasant emotions. When newly acknowledged anger and sadness that are incompatible with our goals often provide healthy adaptive information, happiness has become an end product of the combination of achieved goals and ideals that are multiple and related to different areas in the individual’s life (Power & Dalgleish, 2008). Therefore, feeling happiness seems more difficult than other emotions and this also makes happiness difficult to discuss not just for the client’s but also for the psychotherapist. As psychotherapists, we need to take great attention while working with emotions in therapeutic process. If we directly accept the sense of happiness of our clients without questioning, we may contribute to their avoidance of real subject. For instance, a depressed client with relationship problems could come to therapy saying that “I am so happy with the reason that my boyfriend proposed marriage to me”. In this case, accepting her happiness may lead us to ignore the possible latent sadness about not getting so expected special marriage proposal. By the way, we should be careful about the sense of happiness that experienced by the client as a fiction and not to be a part of it. In therapeutic process, besides handling the client’s happiness, the therapist’s should not skip his/her own happiness. Being a psychotherapist is a highly rewarding, but also personally taxing work. As therapists, we engage in intimate work with our clients. We listen closely and provide empathy to their problems, unhappiness, losses, trials, and triumphs, while maintaining the integrity of therapeutic relationship. Simultaneously, we manage our own thoughts, behaviors and subsequent emotions. While we trying to deal with our clients’ emotion, a popular Turkish proverb comes to the mind: “How well does a tailor sew his/her own clothes?” Specifically, how well does a psychotherapist achieve to be happy? The emotional health of therapists is not just of personal importance, but appears to be a fundamental part of their professional effectiveness. A consistent correlation has been found between successful outcomes of therapy and therapist well-being and positive psychological adjustment (Beutler et al., 2004).