Can One Get Too Happy?

Around 40 years back, a German doctor held a lecture on TCM, i.e. Traditional Chinese Medicine, which he had studied in China.

- Hella Naura

At that time, the Western understanding of illness was dominated by seeing its basic cause in bacteria and viruses and its most effective cure in the swallowing of pills or preventive vaccinations. The concept of psychosomatic disease, which proceeds from how various harmful emotions affect organs or functions, weaken the immunity system, and find expression in bodily disease, was, then, even ridiculed by some. Yet gradually treatment by branches of “alternative medicine” found its way into mainstream thinking, and by now therapies of all sorts and kinds have made their way into illness-ridden, suffering, and sometimes credulous society. Two things got stuck in my memory then. One was the doctor’s enthusiasm for what he had learnt. The other was the audience’s hearty laughter when he said that TCM cautions against too much happiness. This seemed to be some fine joke which the doctor would presently explain. It was not a joke and he did explain. It was a matter of avoiding extremes in all forms.