The Wild Longing of the Human Heart

Book excerpt: The search for happiness has been an enduring quest for us all. The greatest minds from history--Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Rousseau, Kant, Mill, Gandhi, Einstein and many others—all confirm that happiness is the one thing we all crave after. The Wild Longing of the Human Heart is divided into two parts. Part one examines the brief history of happiness which has not always meant exactly the same thing to all cultures and individuals, and then moves on to summarize the latest information from the areas of brain science as well as the field of positive psychology. Part two proposes that it is not happiness (in the psycho-physiological sense of something like tranquility) which is the true goal of human living. Rather, the true goal of the “wild longing” is a meaningful life, guided by the search for truth, beauty and goodness.