After listening to a patient tell me about her life, I told her positive thinking leads to a better life.

The patient, 25, told me she did not have a high school degree and worked as a custodian for the city. She was encouraged to get a physical by her supervisor after learning it was free with her health insurance. This was her first doctor’s visit since she gave birth to her third child. She revealed all her children were fathered by three different men with whom she had no current relationships. When I asked her about her support system, she told me she had not spoken with her mother or siblings for five years and did not know her father or grandparents. She was an attractive lady, but slightly overweight. I noticed she made as little eye contact as possible with me during the interview and physical.

As a family physician, it is my responsibility to medically and psychologically assess every patient and provide medical and/or psychological care, as needed. In this case, after a physical exam, vital signs, and labs all with normal findings, I initiated treatment of her emotional state. I am a strong advocate of a type of psychotherapy called cognitive psychotherapy. This is a form of therapy that involves interactions with patients that help them look at things from a more positive viewpoint. I asked the patient to try to “look at the glass as half full.” I scheduled the patient to come in for an appointment every two weeks.

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From the Buddha to modern gurus of self-help, there have been more than 100 exercises proposed which are alleged to increase lasting happiness, says Professor Martin Seligman a contributor to BBC Two’s The Happiness Formula.

In strange contrast, scientific investigation until recently thought none of these exercises would, as there was an unchangeable and biological “set point” for happiness.

This suggested that our levels of happiness were largely pre-determined by our genes and our upbringing, varying slightly but always returning to our set point of happiness.

It also explained the annoying fact that lottery winners eventually revert to their customarily curmudgeonliness and the rosier finding that paraplegics eventually return to almost the same happiness level they enjoyed before their accident.

I have spent more than 20 years testing the effects of various psychotherapies and drugs on depression.

So when I became a positive psychologist, I first explored many of these exercises and then decided to test rigorously whether any of them really increased happiness…

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