Guest guest Posted May 13, 2009 Report Share Posted May 13, 2009 Dear friends,  Here is an interesting article, " They Had It Made " . A journalist discussing a long term survey of men's lives states that it reveals there " is a complexity to human affairs before which science and analysis simply stands mute. " However, we know that SA astrology can explain such variety of life through the potential seen in different planets and the operation of different planetary periods and the influence of major transits to explain significant events.  Best wishes,  Thor They Had It Made By DAVID BROOKS Published: May 11, 2009 In the late 1930s, a group of 268 promising young men, including John F. Kennedy and Ben Bradlee, entered Harvard College. By any normal measure, they had it made. They tended to be bright, polished, affluent and ambitious. They had the benefit of the world’s most prestigious university. They had been selected even from among Harvard students as the most well adjusted. And yet the categories of journalism and the stereotypes of normal conversation are paltry when it comes to predicting a life course. Their lives played out in ways that would defy any imagination save Dostoyevsky’s. A third of the men would suffer at least one bout of mental illness. Alcoholism would be a running plague. The most mundane personalities often produced the most solid success. One man couldn’t admit to himself that he was gay until he was in his late 70s. The men were the subject of one of the century’s most fascinating longitudinal studies. They were selected when they were sophomores, and they have been probed, poked and measured ever since. Researchers visited their homes and investigated everything from early bed-wetting episodes to their body dimensions. The results from the study, known as the Grant Study, have surfaced periodically in the years since. But they’ve never been so brilliantly captured as they are in an essay called “What Makes Us Happy?†by Joshua Wolf Shenk in the forthcoming issue of The Atlantic. The life stories are more vivid than any theory one could concoct to explain them. One man seemed particularly gifted. He grew up in a large brownstone, the son of a rich doctor and an artistic mother. “Perhaps more than any other boy who has been in the Grant Study,†a researcher wrote while he was in college, “the following participant exemplifies the qualities of a superior personality: stability, intelligence, good judgment, health, high purpose, and ideals.†By 31, he had developed hostile feelings toward his parents and the world. By his mid-30s, he had dropped off the study’s radar. Interviews with his friends after his early death revealed a life spent wandering, dating a potentially psychotic girlfriend, smoking a lot of dope and telling hilarious stories. Another man was the jester of the group, possessing in college a “bubbling, effervescent personality.†He got married, did odd jobs, then went into public relations and had three kids. He got divorced, married again, ran off with a mistress who then left him. He drank more and more heavily. He grew depressed but then came out of the closet and became a major figure in the gay rights movement. He continued drinking, though, convinced he was squeezing the most out of life. He died at age 64 when he fell down the stairs in his apartment building while drunk. The study had produced a stream of suggestive correlations. The men were able to cope with problems better as they aged. The ones who suffered from depression by 50 were much more likely to die by 63. The men with close relationships with their siblings were much healthier in old age than those without them. But it’s the baffling variety of their lives that strikes one the most. It is as if we all contain a multitude of characters and patterns of behavior, and these characters and patterns are bidden by cues we don’t even hear. They take center stage in consciousness and decision-making in ways we can’t even fathom. The man who is careful and meticulous in one stage of life is unrecognizable in another context. Shenk’s treatment is superb because he weaves in the life of George Vaillant, the man who for 42 years has overseen this work. Vaillant’s overall conclusion is familiar and profound. Relationships are the key to happiness. “Happiness is love. Full Stop,†he says in a video. In his professional life, he has lived out that creed. He has been an admired and beloved colleague and mentor. But the story is more problematic at home. When he was 10, his father, an apparently happy and accomplished man, went out by the pool of the Main Line home and shot himself. His mother shrouded the episode. They never attended a memorial service nor saw the house again. He has been through three marriages and returned to his second wife. His children tell Shenk of a “civil war†at home and describe long periods when they wouldn’t speak to him. His oldest friend says he has a problem with intimacy. Even when we know something, it is hard to make it so. Reading this essay, I had the same sense I had while reading Christopher Buckley’s description of his parents in The Times Magazine not long ago. There is a complexity to human affairs before which science and analysis simply stands mute. The essay is available online: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200906/happiness Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 13, 2009 Report Share Posted May 13, 2009 Dear Thor: Thank you very much for posting this interesting article. It is a great illustration that astrology is lacking in psychology. Best wishes, David Hawthorne SAMVA [sAMVA ] On Behalf Of Cosmologer Wednesday, May 13, 2009 1:58 AM samva Cc: What makes us happy? Dear friends, Here is an interesting article, " They Had It Made " . A journalist discussing a long term survey of men's lives states that it reveals there " is a complexity to human affairs before which science and analysis simply stands mute. " However, we know that SA astrology can explain such variety of life through the potential seen in different planets and the operation of different planetary periods and the influence of major transits to explain significant events. Best wishes, Thor They Had It Made By DAVID BROOKS Published: May 11, 2009 In the late 1930s, a group of 268 promising young men, including John F. Kennedy and Ben Bradlee, entered Harvard College. By any normal measure, they had it made. They tended to be bright, polished, affluent and ambitious. They had the benefit of the world’s most prestigious university. They had been selected even from among Harvard students as the most well adjusted. And yet the categories of journalism and the stereotypes of normal conversation are paltry when it comes to predicting a life course. Their lives played out in ways that would defy any imagination save Dostoyevsky’s. A third of the men would suffer at least one bout of mental illness. Alcoholism would be a running plague. The most mundane personalities often produced the most solid success. One man couldn’t admit to himself that he was gay until he was in his late 70s. The men were the subject of one of the century’s most fascinating longitudinal studies. They were selected when they were sophomores, and they have been probed, poked and measured ever since. Researchers visited their homes and investigated everything from early bed-wetting episodes to their body dimensions. The results from the study, known as the Grant Study, have surfaced periodically in the years since. But they’ve never been so brilliantly captured as they are in an essay called “What Makes Us Happy?†by Joshua Wolf Shenk in the forthcoming issue of The Atlantic. The life stories are more vivid than any theory one could concoct to explain them. One man seemed particularly gifted. He grew up in a large brownstone, the son of a rich doctor and an artistic mother. “Perhaps more than any other boy who has been in the Grant Study,†a researcher wrote while he was in college, “the following participant exemplifies the qualities of a superior personality: stability, intelligence, good judgment, health, high purpose, and ideals.†By 31, he had developed hostile feelings toward his parents and the world. By his mid-30s, he had dropped off the study’s radar. Interviews with his friends after his early death revealed a life spent wandering, dating a potentially psychotic girlfriend, smoking a lot of dope and telling hilarious stories. Another man was the jester of the group, possessing in college a “bubbling, effervescent personality.†He got married, did odd jobs, then went into public relations and had three kids. He got divorced, married again, ran off with a mistress who then left him. He drank more and more heavily. He grew depressed but then came out of the closet and became a major figure in the gay rights movement. He continued drinking, though, convinced he was squeezing the most out of life. He died at age 64 when he fell down the stairs in his apartment building while drunk. The study had produced a stream of suggestive correlations. The men were able to cope with problems better as they aged. The ones who suffered from depression by 50 were much more likely to die by 63. The men with close relationships with their siblings were much healthier in old age than those without them. But it’s the baffling variety of their lives that strikes one the most. It is as if we all contain a multitude of characters and patterns of behavior, and these characters and patterns are bidden by cues we don’t even hear. They take center stage in consciousness and decision-making in ways we can’t even fathom. The man who is careful and meticulous in one stage of life is unrecognizable in another context. Shenk’s treatment is superb because he weaves in the life of George Vaillant, the man who for 42 years has overseen this work. Vaillant’s overall conclusion is familiar and profound. Relationships are the key to happiness. “Happiness is love. Full Stop,†he says in a video. In his professional life, he has lived out that creed. He has been an admired and beloved colleague and mentor. But the story is more problematic at home. When he was 10, his father, an apparently happy and accomplished man, went out by the pool of the Main Line home and shot himself. His mother shrouded the episode. They never attended a memorial service nor saw the house again. He has been through three marriages and returned to his second wife. His children tell Shenk of a “civil war†at home and describe long periods when they wouldn’t speak to him. His oldest friend says he has a problem with intimacy. Even when we know something, it is hard to make it so. Reading this essay, I had the same sense I had while reading Christopher Buckley’s description of his parents in The Times Magazine not long ago. There is a complexity to human affairs before which science and analysis simply stands mute. The essay is available online: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200906/happiness Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 13, 2009 Report Share Posted May 13, 2009 Dear Thor: My point is that psychology would benefit from astrology. David Hawthorne SAMVA [sAMVA ] On Behalf Of Cosmologer Wednesday, May 13, 2009 12:54 PM SAMVA Re: What makes us happy? Dear David, You are most welcome. Do you mean to say that we have yet to develop the analysis of psychology with our astrology methods? To my mind, SA astrology can reveal the problem areas of life, which include those areas that may develop into psychological problems. I think that astrology, at a fundamental level, is way ahead of conventional psychology in diagnosing or pinpointing the source of the problems. That said, as we have seen in the area of mundane SA astrology, with continued investigations over a long period of time, with the help of , we have been able to expand the insights also based on the discovery of authentic charts. That said, there is undoubtedly a lot of development poitential still there for the science of astrology in many branches of life - all waiting for the interested and committed astrologer to make the investment of time and effort to bring light to new areas of inquiry. The psychology of astrology sure sounds like an interesting such area. I am ever grateful for having had the luck to have received the generous advise and insights from . He has truly made our investigations very rewarding. Best wishes, Thor David Hawthorne <david SAMVA Wednesday, May 13, 2009 5:08:55 PM RE: What makes us happy? Dear Thor: Thank you very much for posting this interesting article. It is a great illustration that astrology is lacking in psychology. Best wishes, David Hawthorne SAMVA [sAMVA ] On Behalf Of Cosmologer Wednesday, May 13, 2009 1:58 AM samva Cc: What makes us happy? Dear friends, Here is an interesting article, " They Had It Made " . A journalist discussing a long term survey of men's lives states that it reveals there " is a complexity to human affairs before which science and analysis simply stands mute. " However, we know that SA astrology can explain such variety of life through the potential seen in different planets and the operation of different planetary periods and the influence of major transits to explain significant events. Best wishes, Thor They Had It Made By DAVID BROOKS Published: May 11, 2009 In the late 1930s, a group of 268 promising young men, including John F. Kennedy and Ben Bradlee, entered Harvard College. By any normal measure, they had it made. They tended to be bright, polished, affluent and ambitious. They had the benefit of the world’s most prestigious university. They had been selected even from among Harvard students as the most well adjusted. And yet the categories of journalism and the stereotypes of normal conversation are paltry when it comes to predicting a life course. Their lives played out in ways that would defy any imagination save Dostoyevsky’s. A third of the men would suffer at least one bout of mental illness. Alcoholism would be a running plague. The most mundane personalities often produced the most solid success. One man couldn’t admit to himself that he was gay until he was in his late 70s. The men were the subject of one of the century’s most fascinating longitudinal studies. They were selected when they were sophomores, and they have been probed, poked and measured ever since. Researchers visited their homes and investigated everything from early bed-wetting episodes to their body dimensions. The results from the study, known as the Grant Study, have surfaced periodically in the years since. But they’ve never been so brilliantly captured as they are in an essay called “What Makes Us Happy?†by Joshua Wolf Shenk in the forthcoming issue of The Atlantic. The life stories are more vivid than any theory one could concoct to explain them. One man seemed particularly gifted. He grew up in a large brownstone, the son of a rich doctor and an artistic mother. “Perhaps more than any other boy who has been in the Grant Study,†a researcher wrote while he was in college, “the following participant exemplifies the qualities of a superior personality: stability, intelligence, good judgment, health, high purpose, and ideals.†By 31, he had developed hostile feelings toward his parents and the world. By his mid-30s, he had dropped off the study’s radar. Interviews with his friends after his early death revealed a life spent wandering, dating a potentially psychotic girlfriend, smoking a lot of dope and telling hilarious stories. Another man was the jester of the group, possessing in college a “bubbling, effervescent personality.†He got married, did odd jobs, then went into public relations and had three kids. He got divorced, married again, ran off with a mistress who then left him. He drank more and more heavily. He grew depressed but then came out of the closet and became a major figure in the gay rights movement. He continued drinking, though, convinced he was squeezing the most out of life. He died at age 64 when he fell down the stairs in his apartment building while drunk. The study had produced a stream of suggestive correlations. The men were able to cope with problems better as they aged. The ones who suffered from depression by 50 were much more likely to die by 63. The men with close relationships with their siblings were much healthier in old age than those without them. But it’s the baffling variety of their lives that strikes one the most. It is as if we all contain a multitude of characters and patterns of behavior, and these characters and patterns are bidden by cues we don’t even hear. They take center stage in consciousness and decision-making in ways we can’t even fathom. The man who is careful and meticulous in one stage of life is unrecognizable in another context. Shenk’s treatment is superb because he weaves in the life of George Vaillant, the man who for 42 years has overseen this work. Vaillant’s overall conclusion is familiar and profound. Relationships are the key to happiness. “Happiness is love. Full Stop,†he says in a video. In his professional life, he has lived out that creed. He has been an admired and beloved colleague and mentor. But the story is more problematic at home. When he was 10, his father, an apparently happy and accomplished man, went out by the pool of the Main Line home and shot himself. His mother shrouded the episode. They never attended a memorial service nor saw the house again. He has been through three marriages and returned to his second wife. His children tell Shenk of a “civil war†at home and describe long periods when they wouldn’t speak to him. His oldest friend says he has a problem with intimacy. Even when we know something, it is hard to make it so. Reading this essay, I had the same sense I had while reading Christopher Buckley’s description of his parents in The Times Magazine not long ago. There is a complexity to human affairs before which science and analysis simply stands mute. The essay is available online: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200906/happiness Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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