Alison Beard reviews new books on happiness and stress for Harvard Business Review:

Are we finally seeing a backlash against happiness? Sort of. Most of these recent releases rail against our modern obsession with feeling happy and thinking positively….

Where most of the happiness gurus go wrong is insisting that daily if not constant happiness is a means to long-term fulfillment. For some glass-half-full optimists, that may be true…. But for the rest of us, that much cheer feels forced, so it’s unlikely to help us mold meaningful relationships or craft the perfect career. It certainly can’t be drawn out of us by employers or other external forces.