The Happiness Illusion: How the media sold us a fairytale

225 Pages·2015·1.6 MB·English

by  Luke Hockley

THE HAPPINESS ILLUSION
The West has never been more affl uent yet the use of anti-depressants is on the increase
to the extent that the World Health Organisation has declared it a major source of
concern. How has this state of affairs come about and what can be done? Television
and advertising media seem to know. Wherever we look they offer countless remedies
for our current situation – unfortunately none of them seem to work.
The Happiness Illusion explores how the metaphorical insights of fairytales have been
literalised and turned into commodities. In so doing, their ability to educate and
entertain has largely been lost. Instead advertising and television sell us products that
offer to magically transform the way we look, how we age, where we live – both in
the city and the countryside, the possibility of new jobs, and so forth. All of these are
supposed to make us happy. But despite the allure of ‘retail therapy’ modern magic
has lost its spell.
What then are the sources of happiness in our contemporary society? Through a
series of fairytales The Happiness Illusion: How the media sold us a fairytale looks at topics
such as age, gender, marriage and rom-coms, Nordic Noir and the representations of
therapy on television. In doing so it explores alternative ways to relate to the world
in a symbolic and less literal manner – it suggests that happiness comes by making
sure we don’t fall under the spell of the illusionary promises of contemporary televi-
sion and advertising. Instead, happiness comes from being ourselves – warts and all.
This book will be of interest to Jungian academics, fi lm, media and cultural studies
academics, social psychologists and their students, as well as reaching out to those
interested in fairytale studies, psychotherapists and educated cinema goers.
Luke Hockley PhD is Research Professor of Media Analysis at the University
of Bedfordshire, UK. He is a practicing psychotherapist and is registered with the
United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP). Luke is joint Editor in Chief
of the International Journal of Jungian Studies (IJJS) and a member of the Advisory
Board for the journal Spring and lectures widely. www.lukehockley.com
Nadi Fadina is a media entrepreneur and a managing partner in an international fi lm
fund. She is involved in a variety of arts and media related projects, both in profi t and
non-profi t spheres. She teaches Film Business in the University of Bedfordshire, how-
ever, her academic interests outreach spheres of business and cover ideology, Russian
fairytales, sexuality, politics, anthropology, and cinema. www.nadi-fadina.com
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THE HAPPINESS
ILLUSION
How the media sold us a fairytale
Edited by Luke Hockley and Nadi Fadina
First published 2015
by Routledge
27 Church Road, Hove, East Sussex, BN3 2FA
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2015 Luke Hockley and Nadi Fadina
The right of the editors to be identifi ed as the authors of the editorial
material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted
in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identifi cation and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The happiness illusion : how the media sold us a fairytale / edited by
Luke Hockley and Nadi Fadina.
pages cm
1. Fairy tales—Psychological aspects. 2. Happiness—Social
aspects. 3. Mass media and folklore. 4. Mass media—Psychological
aspects. I. Hockley, Luke. II. Fadina, Nadi.
GR550.H275 2015
398.2019—dc23
2014046171
ISBN: 978-0-415-72869-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-72870-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-74036-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
For Mum – Your protecting power of love is always with
me, Nadichka.
For Mum – Thank you for taking me on the journey from
Indian myths to Cornish legends, Luke.
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CONTENTS
Contributors ix
Acknowledgements xii
Introduction: O nce upon a time . . . 1
Nadi Fadina and Luke Hockley
SECTION I
. . . There was a Prince/ss . . . 13
The androgyne
Vignette by Luke Hockley and Nadi Fadina
1 Transitional fantasies of masculinity 17
Terrie Waddell
2 Snow White and the Huntsman: the fairytale of
gender and the female warrior 33
Luke Hockley
3 The second loss of androgyny: the fairytale of dualism 50
Nadi Fadina
SECTION II
The Quest: the Old Wise Helper and the Magical Object 71
Vignette by Luke Hockley and Nadi Fadina
viii Contents
4 Crumbling rejuvenation: archetype, embodiment and
the ‘Aging Beauty myth’ 75
Josephine Dolan
5 Finding the golden egg: illusions of happiness in
an age of consumer capitalism 89
Catriona Miller
6 The self-knowledge industry and myths of happiness 107
Ryan Howes
7 The shadow of redemption: the Grail and
the self-knowledge industry 125
Joanna Dovalis
SECTION III
May all your Wishes come True 141
Vignette by Luke Hockley and Nadi Fadina
8 Engaging marriage: rom coms and fairy tale endings 145
Heather Brook
9 The myth of authentic self-actualisation: happiness,
transformation and reality TV 162
Greg Singh
10 A diffi cult task: Sarah Lund and the crime of
individuated happiness 181
Alec Charles
Author Index 199
Subject Index 202
CONTRIBUTORS
Heather Brook, Ph.D., according to an on-line quiz called ‘Which Fairytale Char-
acter Are You?’, Heather Brook is Little Red Riding Hood. It makes sense. Heather
enjoys visiting Grandma, sampling the excellent local wines of the McLaren Vale
and Adelaide Hills regions, and distance running (especially trail-running in
national parks and forests). Heather works in the School of Social and Policy Studies
at Flinders University in South Australia, where she teaches Gender and Women’s
Studies. Her publications include C onjugality (Palgrave, 2015), Conjugal Rites (2007),
and a diverse range of articles including most recently ‘Zombie Law?’ (F eminist Legal
Studies ).
Alec Charles , Ph.D., is Head of Media at the University of Chester. He has previ-
ously taught at universities in Britain, Japan and Eastern Europe, and has worked
as a newspaper journalist and as a radio documentary programme-maker. He is the
author of Interactivity: New Media, Politics and Society (2012), the co-editor of T he
End of Journalism (2011) and editor of M edia in the Enlarged Europe (2009), Media/
Democracy: A Comparative Study (2013) and T he End of Journalism: V ersion 2.0 (2014).
His recent work also includes contributions to U topian Studies, S cience Fiction Stud-
ies , Science Fiction Film and Television, Journalism Education , Journal of Popular Television
and British Politics .
Josephine Dolan, Ph.D., is a Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at UWE, Bristol. An
internationally recognised scholar in Aging Studies, she is co-editor (with Estella
Tincknell) of A ging Femininities: Troubling Representations (2013) and is a founder
member of the AHRC Research Network WAM (Women, Ageing and Media):
an expert adviser to ENAS (European Network of Aging Studies) and NANAS
(North American Network of Aging Studies); and she gave evidence to the Har-
man parliamentary inquiry, ‘Older Women in the Media’ (2013). Her main research