Critical history

Some of the problems that this work brings up, which are still present in diverse psychological practises developed by professionals, are body-mind identification, the place of humankind in nature, hierarchization and composition of body parts and its faculties as well as canons of beauty and health.

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Positive Psychology is based on a particular model of the individual that was developed in the popular culture of the United States from the end of the eighteen century. This model, that we have called "positive" individualism, started with Emerson´s Transcendentalism by defending, against puritanism, that the individual, as a part of Divinity, is an essence capable of selfcommand, self-exploration and endless self-development. On this basis, but in a more "practical" vein and supported by hundreds of self-help manuals, movements such as New Thought or Positive Thought emphasized the power of the individual´s thinking over matter and the world to mentally cure illness, to attract wealth and achievement, and to self-fulfill the promise of happiness. A critical examination and an alternative to this model of individuality was already offered by genuine American academic psychology, such as that of John Dewey, based upon functionalist psychology and anti-essentialist principles and guided by an alternative political agenda. Current Positive Psychology moves away from the most striking metaphysical aspects of "positive" individualism, but maintains its ahistorical, asocial and subjectivist conception of the individual.

En este artículo recurrimos a la cura mental del norteamericano Phineas Parkhurst Quimby (1802-1866) como ejemplo de práctica psicológica informal que, siendo previa a la psicoterapia formal moderna, contribuyó a establecer las condiciones de posibilidad para que esta última se desarrollase en el mundo occidental. Contextualizamos la labor de Quimby dentro de su época y de la formación de los Estados Unidos como país y como economía capitalista. Explicamos las bases teóricas de su cura mental y el procedimiento conforme al cual transcurría la misma, indicando algunas semejanzas generales con formas de psicoterapia posteriores. Señalamos asimismo la semejanza entre el tipo de individualismo que la cura mental apuntalaba y el de la actual Psicología Positiva.

En este artículo recurrimos a la cura mental del norteamericano Phineas Parkhurst Quimby (1802-1866) como ejemplo de práctica psicológica informal que, siendo previa a la psicoterapia formal moderna, contribuyó a establecer las condiciones de posibilidad para que esta última se desarrollase en el mundo occidental. Contextualizamos la labor de Quimby dentro de su época y de la formación de los Estados Unidos como país y como economía capitalista. Explicamos las bases teóricas de su cura mental y el procedimiento conforme al cual transcurría la misma, indicando algunas semejanzas generales con formas de psicoterapia posteriores. Señalamos asimismo la semejanza entre el tipo de individualismo que la cura mental apuntalaba y el de la actual Psicología Positiva.

historia, antropología, modernidad, sur de Asia 1 Este ensayo y su precedente no son sólo un registro del diálogo entre la antropología y la historia, en especial en relación con los estudios sobre el sur de Asia. Es también una búsqueda por expandir la noción del diálogo y la disensión entre disciplinas, precisamente a través de reconsideraciones críticas de la antropología y la historia. Ello significa que mis esfuerzos analizan y amplían los énfasis de múltiples e influyentes debates sobre la interacción entre la antropología y la historia. Las siguientes obras pueden ser de interés para los lectores.

알리기 위한 지역학, 알고 싶은 지역학: 미국내 “코리안 스터디즈”의 동향과 의미

이 리뷰 논문은Korean Studies 관련 다양한 양질의 최근 저서들 중, 다음의 세가지 주제에 집중해서 소개하였다. 첫째, 한국전쟁과 냉전의 역사적 맥락에 기반을 둔 “친족”과 트라우마를 다룬 연구들은 개인의 고통과 집합적 기억이 접합되면서 만들어낸 새로운 역사 서술 방식과 그 서술에서 등장하게 되는 새로운 주체의 형성에 주목하고 있다. 친족이라는 친밀한 관계가 전쟁과 분단이라는 상황과 맞물리게 되면서, 정치적인 의미를 획득하게 되는 과정을 분석한 이 연구들은, 전장의 전투와 이데올로기적 경쟁을 넘어선 전쟁의 일상화를 소개해 준다. 둘째, 발전 국가와 맞물린 사회운동에 관한 연구들은 민주화 운동의 연속성을 지적한다. 이 연구들은, 민주화는 사회운동의 제도화를 가져오지만, 동시에 저항성을 유지하면서 민주화 이후의 민주화 운동은 지속되고 있고, 새로운 인터넷 환경에서 성장한 청년 세대들이 주체가 되면서, “탈제도화”와 “탈조직화”된 정치에의 참여가 일상화되고 보편화 되고 있음을 보여준다. 셋째, 한국사회를 광범위하면서도 심층적으로 지배하고 있는 세계화와 신자유주의의 강력한 영향력 하에 한국정부는 재외동포에 대한 경제적 “가치”를 인정하고 활용하면서, 재외동포에 관련된 연구들도 급증하게 된다. 코리안 디아스포라 관련 연구들은 재외한인의 역사적 형성과 소수민으로서 주체 형성 과정, 그리고 탈냉전 맥락 속에서 “고국”과 다양한 방법으로 조우하게 되는 과정 등을 다루고 있다. 친숙하면서도 낯선, 낯설고도 친숙한 주제들을 다루는 “Korean Studies”는 미지의 지역을 알리고 소개하는 지역학이 아니라, 미국내 대학생들과 대중들이 미국이 세계의 다른 국가와 지역과 맺어온 방식과, 전지구적인 차원의 자본주의 성격을 반추할 수 있는 비판적 사고와 질문할 기회를 제공하는 성찰의 공간으로 미국 대학내 자리잡아 가고 있다.

주제어: 전쟁, 기억, 친족, 독재, 발전, 사회운동, 글로벌라이제이션, 신자유주의, 디아스포라




Area Studies to Aspire to Know: Recent Korean Studies in the US

This review essay introduces the currently published books in the Korean Studies with a focus on the following three points. First, the kinship studies based on the context of the Korean War and Cold War history have paid attention to war traumas, personal/collective sufferings and memories. The most intimate relationship, “kinship” could turn into political relationships and the articulation between kinship and politics has allowed new ways of historical narrative writing and new analysis of subject formation. These studies addressed the process in which the kinship has acquired political meanings and the war as a continuous legacy has lived across and beyond the battle field and ideological competitions. Second, studies on the social movements linked to the developmental state have pointed the continuity of democratization movements after the democratic transition. The studies highlighted the institutionalization of democratization movement along with the defiant characteristics external to the institutionalization of the movements. Most of all, the youths who have grown up doing the online community activities have led the disorganized and de-institutionalized political movement as a way to participate in the political activities in an ordinary sense. Third, as the neoliberal South Korea government recognized the “value” of the overseas Koreans, we have witnessed the rapid growth of Korean diaspora studies. The researches explore questions such as the historical subject formation of Korean diaspora and ethnic minorities and the contested ways that they encountered with the homeland (mainly South Korea) in the context of globalization and post Cold War. Korean studies deal with an area, which is familiar, but unfamiliar to the American students, is not an area studies that aim to introduce and promote the unknown country to the world. But it has emerged a critical channel that allows the American students to ask reflective questions about the relationship that US has established with the world, and the global capitalism that we now live on.

Key Words: War, Memories, Kinship, Authoritarianism, Development, Social Movement, Globalization, Neoliberalism, Diaspora

Korea entered the US wig market in the mid-1960s and rapidly grew at once. This was possible in a trade environment where wigs were popular as fashion accessories in the West from the 1950s, and the United States participated in the Vietnam War and regulated the trade of Chinese people. Korean wig workers processed Asian hair from underdeveloped countries, including Korean hair, to suit the taste of whites in the West. In the late 1960s, when the fashion changed from human hair wigs to synthetic fiber wigs in the United States, Korean wigs responded with mass-production of small items, and mass-produced low-wage wig workers. As a result, the price of wigs became cheaper, and blacks joined the wig consumers, which in conflict with the American black human rights movement led to a decline in wig prevalence, leading to a reduction in wig workers in Korea.

Size-class Estimation of the Number of Walleye Pollock Theragra chalcogramma Caught in the Southwestern East Sea during the 1970s-1990s Walleye pollock Theragra chalcogramma fisheries in Korean waters have changed dramatically during the last three decades: the highest catches occurred in 1981, followed by continuous decreases through the 1990s, ending with a complete collapse of the population in the 2000s. The major spawning ground of walleye pollock is located in North Korean waters, and some juveniles (called nogari in Korean, <300 mm) migrate to the south for feeding and growth. Since the 1960s, Korean fishermen have often caught juveniles, and the weight (metric tons) of juvenile catch was recorded from 1975-1997. However, because the walleye pollock were not aged, the population age structure was not delineated. We developed a model to estimate the number of walleye pollock of each size class based on catch statistics of adults and juveniles, the catch proportion of each size class, and length and weight information on specimens collected by Danish-seine and drift-gill-net fisheries. The model results demonstrated that the recruitment size of walleye pollock was consistently within the 200-250mm size class, and the highest number of this size class occurred in 1981, although values greatly fluctuated interannually. The number of juvenile pollock was 10.4 times higher than that of adult pollock during 1975-1997. The total yield of juvenile pollock was 0.95 million tons, which was equivalent to about 68.2% of total pollock production. The number of juvenile pollock caught during the same period, however, was 16 billion, comprising about 91.2% of the total number caught. Such high fishing pressure on juvenile pollock is considered one of the main factors causing the collapse of the pollock population.

From a positive historical perspective, Happiness has been considered as a sustantive knowledge, which would be relatively independent from its social-historical frame and which would have become more operative, specific and independient from the philosophical speculation, due to the use of the scientifical method. Opposite to this idea, a constructive perspective would emphasize the social historical conditions in which theorising about Happiness would make sense, as well as stress the operative nature of this knowledge. Taking this second perspective as reference, three hypothesis are suggested: 1) every representation of what Happiness is contributes to the construction of individual subjectiveness, 2) every representation of what Happiness is provides of practices or technologies to direct this construction, and 3) every representation of what Happiness is includes ethical guidelines and morals that belong to a specific culture. In order to defend these hypotheses, this work bri...

No se permite la reproducción total o parcial de este libro, ni su incorporación a un sistema informático, ni su transmisión en cualquier forma o por cualquier medio, sea este electrónico, mecánico, por fotocopia, por grabación u otros métodos, sin el permiso previo y por escrito del editor. La infracción de los derechos mencionados puede ser constitutiva de delito contra la propiedad intelectual (Art. 270 y siguientes del Código Penal). Diríjase a CEDRO (Centro Español de Derechos Reprográficos) si necesita fotocopiar o escanear algún fragmento de esta obra. Puede contactar con CEDRO a través dela web www.conlicencia.com o por teléfono en el 9170219 70 / 93 272 04 47.

Desde los años 90, de la mano del advenimiento del "nuevo espíritu del capitalismo", que configura las relaciones económicas y sociales de una manera mucho más flexible e individualizada, poniendo a su vez en el centro el papel de las emociones y la "comunicación", la literatura de autoayuda se percibe como un elemento más que pretende dar respuesta a las crisis y contradicciones que afectan a los individuos. De esta forma, en este trabajo, desmigaremos tres obras de autoayuda, dando cuenta de la realidad que de éstas se esboza, poniéndolas en relación a las dinámicas económicas y sociales vigentes. También reflexionaremos sobre la forma en que se deberían abordar, desde las ciencias sociales, ciertos discursos que son considerados como dominantes (en este caso, el de la autoayuda y la psicología positiva), a fin de no caer en lugares comunes que aplanen la compleja realidad de lo social.

Contemporary therapeutic ethos is tightly associated with the culture and industry of happiness. Positive psychology, presented as a revolutionary, scientific and universal ―and therefore ultimate― understanding of what human happiness is and how can be achieved, has played an essential role in this in the last two decades. Nevertheless, despite its popular and academic influence on a global scale, the field seems to have neither fulfilled its scientific ambitions nor offered something substantially new from its cultural and popular predecessors. On the contrary, the field should be seen as the latest and most influential manifestation of a North American spiritual tradition long convinced that happiness and misery, health and illness, are individual mind productions. In this regard, the purpose of this paper is twofold. First, to raise epistemological concerns related to positive psychology’s presentation of old, spiritualistic, and ethnocentric ideas as new, scientific, and universal truths about human happiness. Second, to show the strong continuity of positive psychology’s assumptions and therapeutic techniques with New Thought metaphysics, a popular and religious movement that since the years of Phineas P. Quimby has been consecrated to bringing science and spirituality together in the understanding of human health and happiness.

2015 "Have a sober mind instead of a besotted head. Do not eat up the fruits of your labor but let them work for you. Money, being only accumulated energy, is productive; so do not kill the capitalist embryo. Be prepared to account for the efficient use of your means. Be orderly and consistent. Rely on yourself as much as you can, know how to help yourself with unexpected problems, experiment with ingenious solutions leading to still more efficient use of your means," 1 stated Weintraub in his essay of The Puritan Ethics and Benjamin Franklin in which he assimilates the life of Benjamin Franklin to the Puritan ideal of success.

S. Dube (2017), *Formaciones de lo contemporáneo*. México: El Colegio de México. 248 pp. Un prólogo, nueve capítulos y un epílogo: ése es el esqueleto del libro más reciente en español de Saurabh Dube. *Formaciones de lo contemporáne*o desafía la propia noción de objeto y método y, de muchas formas, esquiva también las disecciones entre epis-teme y método, entre formulaciones teóricas y disquisiciones empíricas. Todo está allí y, sin embargo, hay que desandar en la lectura su configuración. En esta reseña no me centraré en los contenidos específicos del libro, sino en la forma en la que puede trazarse una voluntad de lectura. Lo haré, además, en un orden diferente al que Saurabh sostiene.

Resumen: En este trabajo analizamos las semejanzas y las diferencias que existen entre el discurso sobre el sujeto de la psicología positiva y el de la li-teratura de autoayuda. Para delimitar nuestro objeto de estudio definimos un conjunto de categorías y subcategorías psicológicas, al cual hemos de-nominado individualismo ―positivo‖ y cuyo análisis cultural e histórico he-mos desarrollado en otros trabajos. Además, comparamos otros factores como el tipo de vocabulario y el tipo de retórica que utilizan uno y otro tipo de literatura para defender sus argumentos. Para llevar a cabo estos análisis utilizamos una metodología de tipo mixto, en la cual combinamos el uso de la lexicometría, el ANOVA, el análisis de correspondencias y la recupera-ción de palabras en contexto, todo ello combinado con una discusión críti-ca de los textos apoyados en la bibliografía existente. El conjunto de hipó-tesis planteadas en este trabajo postulan que la psicología positiva y la litera-tura de autoayuda comparten unas raíces psicológicas comunes: persiguen el mismo horizonte de bienestar, utilizan conceptos y caracterizaciones psi-cológicas muy parecidas para hablar, describir y explicar al individuo, y desarrollan técnicas y prácticas similares con el fin de que los sujetos actúen sobre sí mismos en busca de su propia felicidad. También planteamos que esta comunalidad, sin embargo, no es compartida por otros tipos de psico-logía de objetivos prácticos e interventivos similares, como la psicoterapia cognitivo-conductual, tipo de literatura que también añadimos a los análisis. Los resultados obtenidos apuntan en la dirección del conjunto de hipótesis planteadas. Palabras clave: psicología positiva; autoayuda; lexicometría; individualismo ―positivo‖; psicología crítica; felicidad; cultura norteamericana. Title: Positive psychology and self-help popular psychology: a historical, psychological and cultural romance Abstract: In this paper, the psychological discourse about the subject provided both by positive psychology and by self-help literature is compared. To specify the object of analysis we define a set of psychological categories and subcategories, to which we have dubbed as ―positive‖ individualism and which cultural and historical background has been analyzed in previous works. Besides these categories, we analyze other aspects such as the kind of vocabulary and the type of rhetoric deployed by both kind of literature to defend their arguments. To carry out these analyses we used a mixed methodology, combining the word-count technique, the ANOVA, the correspondences analysis, and keywords in context. We added a critic discussion of the texts to the data obtained. The hypothesis set out here postulate that both positive psychology and self-help literature share common psychological roots: they defend the same idea of happiness in a similar way psychological concepts in order to describe and explain the individual , and develop analogous psychological practices and techniques aiming to help the individual to search his own well-being. We also postulate that this commonality is not shared by other psychological models, although they have a comparable interventional and practical vein, such as cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy, which we also analyze in this paper. The results obtained are congruent with the set of hypothesis here suggested.

Las páginas siguientes constituyen un trabajo de sociología de la cultura. En ellas se analiza críticamente la primera etapa de la tradición del pensamiento positivo que se desarrolla desde finales del siglo XIX a la actual psicología positiva. El artículo se enmarca dentro de una crítica cultural (en la línea de Norbert Elias) al llamado "evangelio psicoterapéutico", que gira en torno a un ideal de felicidad puramente psicológico y culturalmente obligatorio. Para este trabajo el género de autoayuda es crucial como medio de difusión de pautas y modelos culturales.

En este artículo recurrimos a la cura mental del norteamericano Phineas Parkhurst Quimby (1802-1866) como ejemplo de práctica psicológica informal que, siendo previa a la psicoterapia formal moderna, contribuyó a establecer las condiciones de posibilidad para que esta última se desarrollase en el mundo occidental. Contextualizamos la labor de Quimby dentro de su época y de la formación de los Estados Unidos como país y como economía capitalista. Explicamos las bases teóricas de su cura mental y el procedimiento conforme al cual transcurría la misma, indicando algunas semejanzas generales con formas de psicoterapia posteriores. Señalamos asimismo la semejanza entre el tipo de individualismo que la cura mental apuntalaba y el de la actual Psicología Positiva.

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The present paper analyses the work of Phineas Parkhurts Quimby (1802-1866), father of the Mental Healing movement in North America. It will be argued that this movement, characterized as an array of informal therapeutic practices, should be regarded as an important precursor of modern institutionalized psychotherapy. To display this argument, we will contextualize Quimby’s work within the cultural framework of American culture in general and the development of capitalist economy in particular. Second, we will examine both the theoretical basis and the therapeutic techniques of the Mental Healing movement, pointing out some of its commonalities with subsequent types of psychotherapy. Finally, we will remark the notable resemblance of Mental Healing’s individualism with that of current Positive Psychology.

"Positive psychology and self-help popular psychology: a historical, psychological and cultural romance"

In this paper, the psychological discourse about the subject provided both by positive psychology and by self-help literature is compared. To specify the object of analysis we define a set of psychological categories and subcategories, to which we have dubbed as “positive” individualism and which cultural and historical back-ground has been analyzed in previous works. Besides these categories, we analyze other aspects such as the kind of vocabulary and the type of rhetoric deployed by both kind of literature to defend their arguments. To carry out these analyses we used a mixed methodology, combining the word-count technique, the ANOVA, the correspondences analysis, and key-words in context. We added a critic discussion of the texts to the data obtained. The hypothesis set out here postulate that both positive psychology and self-help literature share common psychological roots: they defend the same idea of happiness in a similar way psychological concepts in order to describe and explain the individual, and develop analogous psychological practices and techniques aiming to help the individual to search his own well-being. We also postulate that this commonality is not shared by other psychological models, although they have a comparable interventional and practical vein, such as cognitive behavioral psychotherapy, which we also analyze in this paper. The results obtained are congruent with the set of hypothesis here suggested.

En 1908, Georges Sorel afirmó que si la democracia no suponía nada más que reducir las horas de trabajo, promover mejores condiciones laborales para los asalariados, desarrollar técnicas más sofisticadas de producción y asegurar la adquisición de bienes materiales a cada vez mayores sectores de la población, entonces no había nada en la democracia que mereciera la pena ser defendido. Esta afirmación del filósofo francés es especialmente pertinente para describir el contexto estadounidense del primer tercio del siglo XX, donde el creciente dominio de la economía y de la industria sobre la esfera política avivó con fuerza el debate en torno a la democracia, es decir, en torno a cuáles eran sus debilidades, quiénes eran sus enemigos, quiénes debían ser sus protagonistas, qué papel debía jugar el estado en el control de la economía y qué rumbo político y axiológico debía tomar su reforma, debate que cobró un enorme
protagonismo durante la etapa progresista (1901-1921). Aunque diferían en el pronóstico, multitud de movimientos políticos tales como populistas, sindicalistas, socialistas y muchos liberales progresistas coincidían en el diagnóstico: la democracia funcionaba mal. John Dewey, junto a un número reducido de intelectuales, sin embargo, se atrevió con otro análisis de lo que estaba ocurriendo: el problema no era que la democracia funcionara mal, sino que no existía la democracia en absoluto, o, mejor dicho, que no existían las condiciones filosóficas, sociales, éticas y morales necesarias sobre las cuales era posible instaurar una democracia de hecho.

"Positive Psychology is based on a particular model of the individual that was developed in the popular culture of the United States from the end of the eighteen century. This model, that we have called “positive” individualism, started with Emerson´s Transcendentalism by defending, against puritanism, that the individual, as a part of Divinity, is an essence capable of self-command, self-exploration and endless self-development. On this basis, but in a more “practical” vein and supported by hundreds of self-help manuals, movements such as New Thought or Positive Thought emphasized the power of the individual´s thinking over matter and the world to mentally cure illness, to attract wealth and achievement, and to self-fulfill the promise of happiness. A critical examination and an alternative to this model of individuality was already offered by genuine American academic psychology, such as that of John Dewey, based upon functionalist psychology and anti-essentialist principles and guided by an alternative political agenda. Current Positive Psychology moves away from the most striking metaphysical aspects of “positive” individualism, but maintains its ahistorical, asocial and subjectivist conception of the individual."

i Adán y Eva permanecieran en el Paraíso serían inmensamente felices pero morirían de aburrimiento, dice Kant. Lo que Kant dijo es, en realidad, todavía mejor: "Es falso asimismo, creer que de haber permanecido Adán y Eva en el Paraíso, no hubieran hecho más que estar juntos, cantar canciones pastoriles y contemplar las bellezas de la Naturaleza. En tal estado les hubiera atormentado el aburrimiento, lo mismo que a los demás hombres." (Kant, 1803(Kant, /2003.

"Positive Psychology is based on a particular model of the individual that was developed in the popular culture of the United States from the end of the eighteen century. This model, that we have called “positive” individualism, started with Emerson´s Trascendentalism by defending, against puritanism, that the individual, as a part of Divinity, is an essence capable of self-command, self-exploration
and endless self-development. On this basis, but in a more “practical” vein and supported by hundreds of self-help manuals, movements like the New Thought or the Positive Thought emphasized the power of individual´s thinking over the matter and the world to mentally cure illness, to attract wealth and achievement, and to self-fulfill the promise of happiness. A critical examination and an alternative to this model of individuality was already offered by genuine american academic psychology, such as John Dewey´s, based upon functionalist psychology and anti-essentialist principles and guided by an alternative political agenda. Current Positive Psychology moves away from the most striking metaphysics of “positive” individualism, but maintains its ahistorical, asocial and subjectivist conception of the individual."

"SELF-HELP AND THE CONSUME
OF PSYCHIC DISPOSITIVES
IN HE CASE OF INNOVATION

ABSTRACT: Innovation appears in the business world and, generally,
in the organizational spheres, as a demand of the economic system
that is characteristic of informational capitalism and its’ predominant
logics: the search of and added value. This is done parallel to
the cultural logics that have cleaned out and taken down the modern
psychic individual. The initiative and the motivation have passed from
being a raw material to a high-elaborated product, a product that
can be worked apart form the individual through the traditional ways
or be included in an psychoanalyzed auto construction. This text
analyses the psycho-cultural function and the success of the selfhelp
books along with its’ “psycho-ideology.” The culture of self-help
has as a horizon all types of relational spheres and all dispositions, feelings,
and emotions. This article is focused on the case of innovation,
that is, the analysis of the functions of the books of self-help"

El libro “La ciencia del bienestar: fundamentos de una psicología positiva” parte de la premisa de que “la felicidad es un asunto importante de modo universal...y es un tema sobre el que la gente piensa de forma habitual, sea feliz o no” (Vázquez y Hervás, 2009, pp.13). Esta afirmación de C.Vázquez en el capítulo introductorio condensa muy bien los tópicos centrales sobre los cuales, a mi parecer, se articula el argumento principal del mismo: la importancia, la cotidianeidad, la historia y la universalidad de la felicidad. La finalidad de la nueva psicología positiva (PPa), continúa diciendo C.Vázquez, aunque “podría parecer utópica o lastrada por valores morales o filosóficos”, es anclar su estudio “en el dominio de la investigación más rigurosa, pues se trata de ofrecer respuestas a algo central en nuestras existencias: qué tenemos de bueno y cómo poder usar esos dones para construir nuevas vidas y hacer un mundo mejor” (Op.Cit. pp.43, ambas citas). Si bien éste es un objetivo loable, Barbara Ehrenreich, en su libro “Smile or Die: how positive thinking fooled America and the world”, sospecha tanto de la posibilidad como de la asepsia y el rigor científico de este objetivo, siendo más partidaria de la afirmación de I.Parker de que “los psicólogos bienintencionados contribuyen a la alienación...beneficiándose de convencer a las personas de que los problemas pueden ser reducidos a cómo pensamos o sentimos” (Parker, 2010, pp.11-12). Partiendo de esta preocupación, B.Ehrenreich tratará estos tópicos de la felicidad desde una perspectiva muy diferente a la presentada en el grueso del libro “La ciencia del bienestar”, defendiendo que si el concepto de felicidad que maneja la PPa ha devenido tan central en nuestra existencia es, precisamente, debido a su germen ideológico e identitario, a su agenda moral y a su pasado filosófico, y no a pesar de ellos, como sugería C.Vázquez con la cita anterior.

From a positive historical perspective, Happiness has been considered as a sustantive knowledge, which would be relatively independent from its social-historical frame and which would have become more operative, specific and independient from the philosophical speculation, due to the use of the scientifical method. Opposite to this idea, a constructive perspective would emphasize the social historical conditions in which theorising about Happiness would make sense, as well as stress the operative nature of this knowledge. Taking this second perspective as reference, three hypothesis are suggested: 1) every representation of what Happiness is contributes to the construction of individual subjectiveness, 2) every representation of what Happiness is provides of practices or technologies to direct this construction, and 3) every representation of what Happiness is includes ethical guidelines and morals that belong to a specific culture. In order to defend these hypotheses, this work briefly introduces to the thought of the philosopher and Doctor Julien Offray de La Mettrie about Happiness, whose vision about this topic differs completely from the point of view presented here. Certain parallelism between some current ideas in the field of positive psychology and those contained in La Mettrie´s work, are pointed out.