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Arthur Brooks: Suffer Like a Marine
Either you can try—fruitlessly, as long as you are in this mortal coil—to eliminate pain, or you can lower your resistance to pain when it inevitably comes.
By Arthur Brooks
02.06.26 — The Pursuit of Happiness with Arthur Brooks
“Lowering your resistance to pain is a mysterious idea.” (Illustration by The Free Press; images via Getty)
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My column on Monday in The Free Press talked about the culture of therapy today—and, more to the point, whether therapy can make you happier (or just less unhappy). One of my arguments was that mental pain—the reason most people seek out therapy in the first place—was not an inherently bad thing. On the contrary, negative emotions serve to alert us to t…

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Arthur Brooks
Arthur C. Brooks is a social scientist and one of the world’s leading authorities on human happiness. He is a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School, Free Press columnist, CBS News contributor, and host of the podcast Office Hours. From 2009 to 2019, he served as president of the American Enterprise Institute. His books have been translated into dozens of languages and include the No. 1 New York Times bestsellers Build the Life You Want (co-authored with Oprah Winfrey) and From Strength to Strength. His next book, The Meaning of Your Life, is available March 31, 2026. You can learn more at www.TheMeaningOfYourLife.com. He lives with his family in Virginia.
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