What Is Happiness, and Can It Be Attained in Therapy?

Is happiness something patients can expect as a realistic consequence of therapy? What does the quintessential clinical wisdom of psychotherapy say about happiness and how to attain it? Existentialism, Meaning, and MeaninglessnessThe emphasis in existential therapy on the innate human need for a sense of significance, meaning, and purpose speaks volumes to what truly supports happiness. According to Freud, we are constitutionally, both psychologically and physiologically, creatures more inclined to unhappiness than happiness. We make ourselves miserable by clinging to unrealistic expectations but can make ourselves happier by consciously relinquishing or modifying them.