Once during an interview, the psychoanalyst Contardo Calligaris said that he preferred an interesting life to a happy one. Happiness always seemed to him like a pointless concern and was, without question, non-deterministic.
The most important thing of all would be to allow ourselves to enjoy life intensely, in all the many moments it offers.
“Happiness, an unnecessary concern,” a talk delivered by the author a few days before his death, combines three short and very powerful texts on the obligation to be happy, “dying well,” and the meaning of life. In his singular style, Calligaris touches on childhood memories, clinical experiences, and his observations on art, history, and the Bible to address themes that are as personal as they are universal.