Not every joy is spontaneous. Not every smile comes from within. We live under the light weight of a happiness that is no longer felt — only displayed. Turned into product, joy now obeys the logic of consumption: it must be desired, purchased, performed, repeated. And what doesn't fit this affective aesthetic is treated as failure.

This book offers a critical journey through the contemporary languages of well-being. From social media to therapeutic markets, from advertising lightness to the silencing of sorrow, what emerges is a symbolic regime where happiness functions as mandate, as performance, as subjective duty. Life is no longer something to be lived — it must appear to be going well.

Along the way, we begin to see the outlines of a culture that aestheticizes healing, normalizes emotions, and commercializes hope. To think joy, here, is also to disobey its imposition.