ABSTRACT
The happiness that is genuinely satisfying is accompanied by the fullest exercise of our faculties and the fullest realization of the world in which we live. In this chapter, the author aims to develop a well-anchored and comprehensive understanding of the phenomena that fall under the rubric of happiness. He begins with S. Freud's views and then move on to subsequent psychoanalytic contributions. Pooling the various observations together, the author categorizes the feelings of happiness into four subtypes and elucidates their nature, as well as the overlaps between them. The four subtypes include pleasure, joy, ecstasy, and contentment. The concept of happiness has a multi-faceted impact upon the conduct of psychoanalytic treatment. This is evident in the analyst's receiving the patient with happiness, interpreting the patient's defences against feelings of happiness, diagnosing false happiness and unmasking its defensive and discharge functions, enjoying the patient's authentic happiness, and managing the countertransference reactions to happiness-related exchanges in the dyad.
