Translating Happiness

This book presents an innovative new approach to the study of wellbeing, intersecting psychology, linguistics, and cross-cultural scholarship. It begins by introducing a cartographic theory of language, proposing that words enable us to map our world, and thus to understand and navigate our lives. However, different cultures map the world in different ways, generating so-called untranslatable words (i.e., which lack an equivalent in another language – in this case, English). Their significance is that they point to aspects of life that have hitherto been overlooked or undervalued in English-speaking cultures. By exploring such words, we can therefore refine our maps, developing a more nuanced appreciation of the world. This book deploys this process with respect to wellbeing specifically, bringing its hidden dimensions to light. Moreover, it argues that this process may not only enhance our understanding of wellbeing, but also our experience of it, empowering us to identify phenomena that had previously been only dimly perceived, and even to discover new dimensions of existence we had not realised were there. These possibilities are brought to life through a tour of 400 or so words, sourced from nearly 80 languages. These terms are analysed thematically, arranged into three overarching meta-categories – feelings, relationships, and personal development – which together constitute a comprehensive new theory of wellbeing. The book concludes by outlining an ambitious research agenda that will fully allow the promise of these untranslatable words, and the theory outlined here, to be realised.