Lawyers aren't so miserable after all

Despite the preconceptions that lawyers are an overworked and cynical bunch who you would not want to be stuck in a lift with, one psychology guru has found that lawyers are, in fact, normal people.

Lawyers: normal people?

The ABA Journal reports that research by Dan Bowling, a positive psychology guru who teaches at Duke Law School, found that lawyers are on par with the general population when it comes to life satisfaction.
Mr Bowling also found that students entering law school reported above-average happiness, begging the question: Does law school make you unhappy?

Therapy

Mr Bowling will now undertake further research to find out what it is about the profession that saps the happiness from young lawyers’ lives.
The research also rang true with previous reports that the profession, and specifically law schools, can worsen the symptoms of depression. But it also found that counselling and therapy, as well as the growth in institutional awareness of the problem, has come a long way in recent years.

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