Freud Wrong About Type As & Happiness?

Freud thinking “success wrecks people” was bone-headed & success can very much be the ticket to happiness says a 5-decade study of 2.3k subjects, thereby belying a century of unnecessary angst among Type As.

But, despite Freud’s cynicism, didn’t’ we all believe the old saw, “I’d rather be rich & MISERABLE than poor & happy”? Apparently not so much as related in the WSJ’s “The Happiness Data That Wrecks a Freudian Theory” by Ben Cohen. According to Cohen, Freud’s theory on the correlation between distress and failure was proferred in an influential essay & really based on a few case studies: “A patient who fell into depression after earning a promotion at work, another patient who fell apart when she married her longtime partner – and Lady Macbeth, who was not his patient.” In short, Freud famously concluding “people are wrecked by success” lacked sufficient “data” to be scientifically verified.

Enter “an extraordinary project called the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth, a 50-yr longitudinal survey of gifted students overseen [& recently published] by Dr. Lubinski & Camilla Benbow at Vanderbilt.” Tracking these subjects beginning in 1972 until now the researchers were quite definite about the benefits of working for as well as dressing for success. “It doesn’t make us unhappy,” Dr. Lubinki said. “People who choose to be highly successful in their careers shouldn’t worry that they’re putting themselves at risk for medical or psychological harm.” If only I HAD KNOWN THAT …

Davd Soul