Radical Happiness: Moments of Collective Joy

by Lynne Segal

Overview

A passionate call to rediscover the political and emotional joy that emerges when we share our lives

In an era of increasing individualism, we have never been more isolated and dispirited. A paradox confronts us. While research and technology find new ways to measure contentment and popular culture encourages us to think of happiness as a human right, misery is abundant.

Segal believes we have lost the art of “radical happiness”—the liberation that comes with transformative, collective joy. She argues that instead of obsessing about our own well-being we should seek fulfilment in the lives of others. Examining her own experience in the women’s movement, Segal looks at the relationship between love and sex, and the scope for utopian thinking as a means to a better future. She also shows how the gaps in care that come from the diminishing role of the welfare state must be replaced by alternative ways of living together and looking after one another.

In this brilliant and provocative book, Segal proposes that the power of true happiness can only be discovered collectively.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781786631572
Publisher:	Verso Books
Publication date:	12/05/2017
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	641 KB

About the Author

Lynne Segal is Anniversary Professor of Psychology and Gender Studies in the Department of Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck College. Her books include Is the Future Female? Troubled Thoughts on Contemporary Feminism; Slow Motion: Changing Masculinities, Changing Men; Why Feminism: Gender, Psychology, Politics; Making Trouble: Life and Politics and Straight Sex: Rethinking the Politics of Pleasure. She co-wrote Beyond the Fragments: Feminism and the Making of Socialism with Sheila Rowbotham and Hilary Wainwright. Her most recent book was Out of Time: The Pleasures and Perils of Ageing.

Editorial Reviews

The socialist feminist we need to listen to right now. Her book is an important one because we need ‘a politics of hope’ like never before.”
—Emma Rees, Times Higher Education

“Radical Happiness ultimately arrives at a convincing argument about our need to overcome the now-common tendency to view dystopian thinking as a political act in and of itself … If happiness is ‘not so much an emotion, a psychic state or inner disposition, but rather a way of acting in the world,’ then so is the path to real social change. It is defined not by a list of demands, but by a commitment to the common good. A feminism that’s about showing up for each other and not merely ourselves: how radical.”
—Charlotte Shane, Nation

“An expansive and contemplative exploration of love, joy, desire, and the concepts surrounding Utopias, all of which find the author navigating human psychology, sociology, societal mores, and the economics of happiness. A calm, refreshing breath of fresh air in a dangerously uncertain moment in human history.”
—Kirkus

“An engaging, enlightening read for anyone who wants to ponder the links between personal dissatisfaction and political disengagement—and possible remedies. The idea of collective happiness as the root of much satisfaction is simple, but deceptively hard to write about, let alone achieve. Segal succeeds in inspiring on many levels.”
—Isabel Berwick, Financial Times

“Radical Happiness ultimately arrives at a convincing argument about our need to overcome the now-common tendency to view dystopian thinking as a political act in and of itself.”
—Charlotte Shane,Nation

“A vital intervention that draws on on a wide range of radical thinkers to offer a real breadth and depth of perspectives in an accessible read. Segal reminds us that a joy shared has a longer-lasting impact, and her defiant approach to radical happiness is thorough, frank and refreshing.”
—Red Pepper

“Straightforward in argument and essential in content for our times … a source of much joy and inspiration.”
—Peace News

“There can be something exhilarating about taking part in a protest or other instance of activism. In her book Radical Happiness, Lynne Segal examines this side of activism, and also explores the ways in which avoiding politics entirely may be tied to a greater sense of disquiet and frustration. It’s an incisive look at another facet of politics and society.”
—Tobias Carroll, Signature

From the Publisher

2017-09-04
A wide-ranging analysis of communal joy, including suggestions on how to get it back.Feminist and activist Segal (Psychology and Gender Studies/Birkbeck Coll.; Making Trouble: Life and Politics, 2008, etc.) dives into the fraught realm of happiness studies and how we balance collective joy with personal fulfillment. "Writing a book on happiness is surely one of the most foolish hostages to fortune I have ever given," she freely admits in the preface. "Who am I to lay claim to any expertise on the matter?" So begins an expansive and contemplative exploration of love, joy, desire, and the concepts surrounding Utopias, all of which find the author navigating human psychology, sociology, societal mores, and the economics of happiness. Here, she's really talking about the nexus between our private happiness and the need and desire to share that joy with others, creating a Venn diagram that hovers between the public and the private. Segal's writing is surprisingly accessible, with lots of references to people and cultural tics one might not expect. She nods to old chestnuts like Freud, who argued that the evolving process of "civilization" makes people unhappy because it restricts individual desire, but in talking about resisting the "happiness imperative" brought down on society, she brings in black scholar Cornell West, who argues that joy cuts across individual pleasure. "Joy tries to get at those non-market values—love, care, kindness, service, solidarity, the struggle for justice—values that provide the possibility of bringing people together," West notes. Segal also mourns for a collective joy that has been damaged or killed not just by inequality, but also by modern irony. "If happiness can prove elusive or fleeting over a lifetime," she writes, "joy itself is often not mentioned at all today, except glibly." A calm, refreshing breath of fresh air in a dangerously uncertain moment in human history.

Kirkus Reviews