Parat regards Freud's definition of happiness, the realization of an infantile wish, as pessimistic and inadequate, because it fails to distinguish happiness from esthetic creation, from dreams, from scientific research, etc. But a definition of happiness is difficult. From a psychoanalytic standpoint, Parat proposes that happiness is an affective state of a certain duration which requires a certain spontaneous internal organization. The duration is variable. We may experience moments of happiness which are limited in time. At these moments of happiness there is a hypercathexis of some actual present experience which has a rich associative communication with memory and fantasy. Such moments may occur, for example, before a certain painting at a museum, or during a visit to an especially significant locale (as in Freud's experiences in Rome and at the Acropolis). In contrast, periods of happiness more lasting in time generally