affective forecasting

Did I imagine it?  A psychologist recommending African safaris?  Because you can savour the memories for years.....

That's a wise way to spend your money, he said.

But who was his audience?  Surely not the majority of mankind.

Has psychology given up all pretense of being a science?  Is it now the psychology of  the bourgeois, and not a science of human beings in general?

Well, they tell us we are bad at "affective forecasting".  The most terrible things will happen,
but I will return to my normal affective state.

Is that supposed to be good?

Is it a justification for the genuinely bad things?--As if they don't really matter?

Of course, once I've lost my job, I'll adjust; but it's a bad thing to be unemployed.
And suggesting that somehow I return to my steady state is not helpful.

Because despite our flexibility, once a bad thing has happened, that's a genuine loss.
And it's not counter-balanced by my ability to retain my equilibrium.

The psychologists' view trivializes human suffering.