Language and the Pursuit of Happiness by Chalmers Brothers

Brothers, Chalmers. Language and the Pursuit of Happiness. Naples, FL: New Possibilities, 2007.

The central theme of this book is that language is pervasive in the human environment and that actions in language have consequences in our lives. We can take actions in language that lead to better results.

Brothers draws ideas from a number of areas including language, learning and mind-body connection. Though the chapters committed to this material have exercises associated with them, they mostly serve as background material. The first half of the book is committed to describing these concepts.

Most of the second half is committed to describing different type of language actions. Each is summarized below.



Assertions and Assesments. Assertions are statements of fact; they can be proved or disproved. Assessments are judgments and opinions; they may be valid or supportable, but they are not verifiable like facts. People run into trouble by treating unhelpful assessments as if they are true assertions.

Declarations. Declarations created possibilities or context. With declarations, we may initiate, conclude, resolve or assess. Declarations are powerful because of the context they create, defining for us what is and is not possible.

Requests and Offers. Requests and offers are actions in language by which we try to achieve a desirable future that might otherwise go another way. Requests and offers are similar to declarations in that they are creative actions, but they go farther in enlisting others in undertaking some action to achieve a desired future result.

Promises, Commitments and Agreements. Promises are important because of the effect of keeping or not keeping them. Broken promises break our trust, relationships, success and self-esteem. Kept promises improve these things. Because of this, it is important to manage our commitments, taking responsibility to fulfill them or renegotiate them when we cannot.

I found the book a little hard to read. I think this was partly due to the layout of the book and the use of several forms of emphasis. The concepts seemed somewhat disjointed, and the author’s attempts to tie things together resulted in some wordiness. I felt the not especially long book was a long read.