The (UK) Times offered an interesting overview about the lingering debate that still rages on among conventional medical experts regarding the link -- both positive and negative -- between emotions and health.
It begins by looking at the controversy over examining "happiness" scientifically at all, given the attitude that happiness is in some ways the trivial pursuit of a shallow generation. The article examines the school of thought that trying to increase one's own happiness is in some ways selfish while much of the world faces suffering and premature death.
However, research has shown, in well over 3,000 papers on the subject, that happier people are often healthier, more successful, harder-working, caring, and socially engaged. Misery, on the other hand, can make people self-obsessed and inactive.
Also looked at in the article are the questions of what happiness is in the first place, why negative emotions are so deeply ingrained in the human psyche, the biology of emotions, and the debate over the "positive feelings" school of psychology and psychotherapy.
