Tell me a story

I'm really, really skeptical of happiness research in general and 59 Seconds in specific, because the author doesn't seem to distinguishing between "true internal happiness" and "the number we circle on the form." But he did just say something interesting: when coping with a recent misfortune, bitching to friends appears to be at best neutral at making you feel better,* but writing it down is genuinely helpful. The hypothesis he presents with no supporting evidence is that writing leads people to form narratives about their problems, while complaining just makes them thinking about it to no useful purpose. As a person who spends a lot of time trying to form narratives about everything, I find this fits nicely with my preexisting biases.

And speaking of barely related factoids I've been looking for an excuse to use: did you know that in Russian, "to have a story with" means to be in love with? I like that.


*at least in the timescale measured. In things like this and the pillow punching study, I don't think they're successfully distinguishing between letting a problem go and suppressing it.