Happiness from Virtue or Indulgence? Part 1

In our society, sexuality has come to be used more as a drug than a means of reproduction and a principal sign of marital love. Virtue is commonly seen as frivolous, especially among atheists. This corrupt perspective can and has influenced popular “science” by hastily, imposing false narratives and interpretations on empirical data. When we seek our good, especially when not utilizing magisterium, scripture, etc., these sources hope to assure us that disciplining our desires is pointless and leads us away from happiness. Our Creator knows our good, wills our good, and wills us to know our good, revealing the moral order to us. From the beginning, man's problems stem from trying to redefine happiness and how it is obtained, leading him into sin. Rather, growth in virtue allows us to live with joy, not just struggle to attain momentary happiness. In the next few posts, we will see how our culture recommends proximate means to the end of happiness, psychology, like Christian moral theology, finds resilient joy formed through virtue (temperance, fortitude, prudence, and justice) to be better for the person and (thereby) society at large, a case example of this is sexuality.
First, let us examine how popular, and thus allegedly reliable, sources make assertions that are sometimes at odds with academic journals, especially regarding sexuality topics. An article published by WebMD suggests that abstaining from sexual activity is detrimental to one’s health.[1] This article, cited in the preceding statement, is allegedly reviewed by a doctor but does not cite any actual research. However, there are academic, peer-reviewed articles that suggest that hypersexuality is a compulsive behavior and thus it is detrimental to human flourishing.[2] Another example of these inconsistencies can be found in an article published by Mayo Clinic that introduces its topic by saying, “Sexual satisfaction has been linked to the quality of life throughout a person’s life, and distress related to sexual dysfunction impacts the health of the individual and their relationship.”[3] However, it seems self-evident that happiness is not unequivocal with hedonism, and thus that though the quote above contains some truth, it posits a myopic/reductive view of interpersonal and personal flourishing.[4] Further, such a misattribution can have very negative implications on a person’s life, since happiness as they would understand it, would leave a person void of the “happiness” most of the time and only in possession of it intermittently, through a specific means and context. The language used by many researchers studying pornographic addiction implicitly affirms the assumption that hedonism and happiness are the same things. By using quotations, these researchers seem to imply that attachment to pornography is not a real addiction, but that the phenomenon is only thought of as an addiction.[5] The “Hedonism=Happiness”/indulgent/non-virtue interpretation of flourishing is evident here. Although it is widely known that popular sources are unreliable, even academic peer-reviewed or commercial-funded studies are prone to (at least a light) bias via hasty or desired conclusions. Academic journals are not immune to self-authentication and bias through adherence to a certain/popular perspective.[6] Depending on one’s metaphysical assumptions/beliefs, data and conclusions will mean/be interpreted with varying perspectives and thereby will have dissimilar implications for different people. It is these differing perspectives that account for inconsistencies, not only between popular and academic sources but even within the peer-reviewed and academic body of research itself.

In conclusion, is it very surprising that a culture restrains the realm of possibility to what empirically observed would not be able to really grasp the fullness of the mind's good? Science can only do so much to ethically study the brain. With so many studies showings that religious people live happier and healthier lives; it will be interesting to see how academic psychology develops as new methods are invented. We will continue our investigation on whether it is truly religiously defined virtues or secular indulgence will maximize our happiness throughout our being, creating human flourishing in our lives par excellence next week.

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1. See Sabrina Fehlson, “What Happens to Your Health If You Stop Having Sex?” WebMD, July 30, 2020.
2. Michael Miner, Janna Dickenson, and Eli Coleman, “Effects of Emotions on Sexual Behavior in Men with and without Hypersexuality,” Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity 26, no. 1-2 (2019), 24.
3. Carol L. Kuhle, Xin Zhang, and Ekta Kapoor, “Misconceptions about Sexual Health in Older Women,” Mayo Clinic Proceedings 96, no. 4 (2021), 866.
4. David Roger Clawson, “Happiness vs. Pleasure: The Source of Our Discontent?” Psychology Today. Sussex Publishers, December 17, 2021.
5. See Samuel L Perry, “Not Practicing What You Preach: Religion and Incongruence Between Pornography Beliefs and Usage,” Journal of Sex Research 55, no. 3 (2018), 370.; See Felix Zimmer, and Roland Imhoff, “Abstinence from Masturbation and Hypersexuality,” Archives of Sexual Behavior 49, no. 4 (2020), 1333.
6. Bruno Lemaitre, “Science, Narcissism and the Quest for Visibility,” FEBS Journal 284, no. 6 (2017), 875-882.

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