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Comment by snagglegaggle | Hacker News Reader

Richard P. Bentall makes convincing argument that happiness is a psychiatric disorder.† Notably Caesar was said to prefer the company of fat men, with the implied causation that happy -> fat. One also sees this in the weight gain usually caused by SSRIs. At the same time obesity has well measured effects on many metabolic processes, so it is likely there is some effect on the brain.

† [PDF] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1376114/pdf/jme...

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Fatness was also more expensive then so it was a status symbol in itself when farming was the defacto "default" job to support the specialization pyramid.

I was going to joke about happy stoned people, but:

Recreational marijuana use impacts white matter integrity and subcortical (but not cortical) morphometry

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4925620/

Can someone please ELI5 on the meaning of these things? Googling around just sends me down a scholarly rabbit hole of more words I don't understand.

I did that once to a paper that I don't understand. That is, I read and look up stuff until I think I understood things.

I learned a lot by doing that. But it took a lot of work, and I forgotten most of it if it wasn't added to anki. Good thing that I wrote it down in my notes.

That’s a super interesting essay, but I think the point is more that depression is not a psychiatric disorder.

I went from thinking it was a humorous article, to thinking it was serious after some convincing arguments, then finally concluded it was definitely a joke after reading happiness ought to be classified as "major affective disorder, pleasant type." Who can keep a straight face after reading that?

I agree with you; it is a protest.

> Caesar was said to prefer the company of fat men, with the implied causation that happy -> fat.

From WikiQuote [0]: "It is not the well-fed long-haired man I fear, but the pale and the hungry looking."

And from pg's determination essay [1]: "That's why Julius Caesar thought thin men so dangerous. They weren't tempted by the minor perquisites of power."

[0] https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Julius_Caesar [1] http://www.paulgraham.com/determination.html

This is extremely interesting; thanks for linking it.

I would imagine that in the time of Rome, fat people were likely wealthy people. Today fat people are more commonly poor.

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