“We don’t come in here and do jumping jacks and yoga for three hours,” says Daniel Bowling, a senior lecturing fellow at the law school who developed and teaches the course. “This is a serious class. We’re trying to describe more than prescribe.” He says the approach and substance of the course is rooted in science–primarily the growing body of research on positive psychology. While it may not be contracts law, Bowling insists that a comprehensive consideration of the role that well-being plays in the legal profession is a legitimate subject of academic inquiry. “This is not a form of self-help…or an experiment,” he says. At the same time, Bowling adds, as they learn more about these matters and about themselves, those who take his class may improve their law school and career experiences because they’re better equipped to make smart choices. And what’s wrong with that?
As a society, it seems, we’re more obsessed than ever with the idea of happiness: What is it? How do we achieve it? Is it really the key to a longer, healthier life? There are hundreds of books on the subject, from The Happiness Project to Being Happy. Newspapers and magazines regularly offer tip-driven as well as big-question articles (“10 Secrets to Finding Happiness During the Recession”in U.S. News & World Report; “But Will It Make You Happy?” in The New York Times). The pursuit of happiness is also a popular Hollywood story line. Witness the big-screen success of Eat Pray Love, the movie adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling memoir about her quest, in the wake of a failed marriage, to find the meaning of life and, ultimately, happiness (all it took was a year of pasta, meditation, and navel-gazing in Italy, India, and Indonesia). These works tend to promote one message above all others: Everyone should be happier–and can be. All it takes is some work.
