Natural happiness is rare. Fortunately, humans can create synthetic happiness: the happiness one feels when not getting what was wanted. A common example of synthesized happiness found in every day life is, “I wouldn’t have turned out this way if I didn’t experience the (normally negative) things I experienced.” Adjusting happiness around whats avaliable instead of what is originally wanted is synthesized happiness, and it’s an ability inside the mind, not something pursue-able.
To further explain the synthesized and natural happiness (happiness felt when achieving the original goal) the pre-frontal lobe must be defined. The pre-frontal lobe is a part of the brain where humans have the ability to play out a scenario in the mind before ever having experienced it. No other animal has the ability to do this. Consider lifelong happiness in terms of winning the lottery or becoming a paraplegic, most respondents would chose winning the lottery, but how would they know? The use of the pre-frontal lobe to create a simulation of both options caused the immediate acknowledgment that winning the lottery would produce significantly more happiness than becoming crippled.
“The idea that we (humans) find it hard to hold two contradictory beliefs, so we unconsciously adjust one to make it fit with the other,” is cognitive dissonance and can be combined with the idea of synthesized happiness because when a situation does not fit the brain alters those opinions and/or feelings. Happiness cannot be found because happiness is a feeling found within the brain.
Happiness can be stated as “a relatively shallow, self-absorbed or even selfish life, in which things go well, needs and desire are easily satisfied, and difficult or taxing entanglements are avoided,” when life-meaning is not involved. Happiness is more heavily based on day-to-day events verses life-changing events such as winning the lottery. Happiness can’t be sought out through these events.
In contrast, a person who is suicidal or depressed explains why happiness cannot be found. Depressed paitents are incapable of finding happiness in winning the lottery, even when positive events take place happiness cannot be felt.
“The happy life is also defined by a lack of stress or worry,” is stated in “There’s More to Life Than Being Happy.” This definition of a lack of anxiety can be directly related to the pre-frontal lobe– with its ability to play out situations in the mind it can simulate situations to play out much more dramatically than they actually would, leading to massive amounts of stress and worry, thus a lack of happiness.
“(I)t is a characteristic of the American culture that, again and again, one is commanded and ordered to ‘be happy.’ But happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue. One must have a reason to ‘be happy.'” Happiness can not be commanded to find when such a feeling is already an ability in the brain, or isn’t.
Works Cited
The Surprising Science of Happiness
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Counterintuitive Fall 2022 
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Feedback provided March 13. —DSH
Synthesizing happiness is an ability of the human mind, which most experience, but only a few accept.
That’s a really nice balancing of concepts, Stephen. It’s not perfect because it confuses whether people “accept” the existence of the ability or they accept the assistance the brain is offering, but it’s a strong, intriguing opening. —DSH
“Happiness can be synthesized,” stated by Dan Gilbert may mean nothing to someone who doesn’t know what that means, but to someone who is aware that synthesized happiness is the happiness one feels when they don’t get exactly what they wanted acknowledges that yes, happiness can be synthesized and actually happens quite often.”
#LongestSentenceIveEverSeen
It starts off almost condescending. Addressing the fact that people may not understand what it means before you define it make me want to not read it. Why call out the people that don’t know what it means when you’re literally defining it later that sentence? Maybe something along the lines of:
I concur with your objection to alienating readers in this way, Alex. It’s bad strategy to accuse our readers of not understanding what we, the more enlightened authors, have known forever. Much better to stay in the same camp with our readers any way we can. —DSH
“Synthetic happiness was first proposed by Dan Gilbert–(tell us a little bit about Dan Gilbert). The idea of synthetic happiness is the feeling one gets when they don’t get what they want, but learn to live with what they have.”
On the other hand, I don’t want Angela adopting this sentence, which delays the roll-out of any meaningful thesis too long. (Eliminate pronoun number disagreements.) —DSH
Synthesizing happiness is the unconsciousness of the human brain deciding to be happy with life’s obstacles.
Nice work, Troi. I believe this is the only place all these components are found in one sentence. —DSH
#
@ me next time, bro
I like “Natural happiness is rare,” Angela. Regarding your pronouns, I’m going to try again to break you and everyone else of bad patterns. Every pronoun that gets you into trouble in P1 is now blue. Ask me why they’re problematic if you don’t know, then apply the corrections to the rest of your writing forever.
P2. I have to ask you whether my dog has a pre-frontal lobe because she starts to leap at the front door when I touch my coat, anticipating I assume that what happens next will be a walk in the park. She must be playing out a scenario in her mind, wouldn’t you say? Or would you? Do we need language to perform this activity you claim occurs? And does it only work for speculative new experiences? If I could describe a new destination to my dog in language that suggested it might be park-like, would the pre-frontal lobe help her anticipate the happiness of walking there?
Understand I’m asking not because you need dog research but because if you don’t distinguish what’s special about the human brain, we won’t know whether to trust your claims about the lobe or not.
P3. Your argument approach: “to further explain,” “Let’s look at,” “Happiness can be stated as,” indicates that your essay type is instructional, Angela, not persuasive or argumentative. The biggest rewards in this class are reserved for those who pursue a controversial question to persuade a skeptical audience that something unexpected is true.
You start confidently on that path with “Natural happiness is rare,” but you don’t maintain that rhetorical strength.
P5. Gathering the strands of what other people provide as definitions of happiness, or types of happiness, doesn’t help you pursue your own agenda as you should, Angela. Your attempt here to “associate” a “lack of stress or worry” from one author’s publication to the pre-frontal lobe claims of another author’s publication leaves you no role other than to moderate their conversation. You don’t say here whether the “situations” are happiness-inducing bonuses of good fortune or massive catastrophes. The fact that we don’t know which one you’re describing means you’re leaving the readers out of the conversation too.
Grade recorded. Always improvable with revisions.