“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters
compared to what lies within us.” Oliver Wendell Holmes

The convergence of evidence is striking in support of the hypothesis that benevolent emotions, attitudes and actions centered on the good of others are contributory to happiness, health, and even longevity in the agent of such giving. Benevolence is chiefly about the well-being of recipients, but that said, it can be added that it nourishes the giver. Because no research methodology is perfect, researchers in the social sciences and health outcomes look for a convergence of results across a variety of methods before reaching a conclusion as to the truth of any hypothesis. The evidence that “doing unto others” is good for the giver has reached a high threshold. This presentation will highlight the research facts and offer interpretation.

The data presented here has enormous implications for how we think about human nature, the moral and spiritual life, and well-being. All significant ethical traditions denounce selfishness. “Good” across these traditions has been universally associated with other-regarding virtues and actions, and contrasted with narcissism and solipsism. Virtue is its own reward in the sense that doing good brings benefits to the actor by virtue of participating in the emotional energy of benevolence. Reciprocal gains may occur, but they cannot be counted on. Fortunately, the good life brings internal rewards to the agent that can be counted on, and these should be experienced without guilt. Generally, these rewards include greater happiness and better health. It’s good to be good, and to grasp this is to know the dynamic of the human essence.

It seems obvious that someone who is cared for and loved by many will be for the most part miserable until he or she begins to care genuinely for others. Anecdotally, many of us can remember a parent or a mentor responding to our malaise with the recommendation my mother offered: “Why don’t you forget about yourself and do something for someone else!” Yet my intent herein is not to be anecdotal, but to assess the scientific literature focusing on the agent’s welfare in order to enhance the case for the generous life.

The evidence to be accumulated herein supports the following hypothesis: One of the healthiest things a person can do is to step back from self-preoccupation and self-worry, and there is no more obvious way of doing this than focusing attention on helping others. This transformation of being and of doing seems to promote emotional and physical well-being, and odds are, will add some years to life. When we get started young, this transformation has life-long health benefits, but there are benefits whenever we get started, even as older adults. The experience of helping others provides meaning, a sense of self-worth, a social role, and generally enhances health.

Caveats

Four caveats are obvious, and these have so colored the literature that the benefits of giving are sometimes obscured. First, “doing unto others” to overwhelming degrees can become stressful in itself, and will have adverse health consequences, as in the case of those family caregivers of loved ones with dementia who are unable to find respite support (Kiecolt-Glaser, 2002). Another example involves occupational altruism, as in the case of the clinician or fireman, which can include a level of stress under overwhelming circumstances that is difficult to endure and leads to professional burnout. Thus, the American College of Physicians recommends steps to avoid physician burnout, including balance between work and family, boundary setting, and good care of the self including having fun (Maguire, 2001). Second, there are altruistic individuals who are neglectful of self-care and who seem joyless. Psychoanalytic reflection suggests that such persons manifest “pseudo-altruism,” which masks some underlying psychic conflict or lack of self-acceptance, and contains self-destructive elements. This “pseudo-altruism” has been differentiated from true generativity (Seelig & Rosof, 2001). I must quickly add, however, there are many passionate people who find noble causes of such great personal meaning that their capacity to give seems boundless. I met Dame Cicely Saunders, founder of St. Christopher’s Hospice, in 1999. At 83 years of age, she was still going into St. Christopher’s daily to help in innumerable ways, including direct care of the dying, and proclaimed joyfully to me that “a women with a mission never retires.” Dame Cicely was a truly generous, buoyant, and emotionally radiant older adult. Her powerful sense of meaning and spiritual mission allowed her to do so much for so many. Psycho-analytic writing tends to see such generous lives under the rubric of “the problem of altruism,” grounded in an unfounded Freudian suspicion of altruism beyond kin (Badcock, 1986). Third, as feminist literature underscores, there are instances when caring for others can be manipulative, coercive, and abusive. And yet feminist ethics has maintained a strong commitment to the ethics of care, replete with such cautions (Noddings, 2003). When someone is being manipulated, coerced or abused, that person ought to confront or flee the situation as soon as possible, for the sake of self but also because of a responsibility to teach abusers that no human being should be treated in such a manner. Fourth, too often people think of giving “unto others” in terms of a self-destructive dance of suicidal altruism. While it is remarkable to study cases where a soldier sacrifices himself by falling on a grenade or a fireman dies in a towering inferno – and to laud such noble actions – this presentation focuses on the 99 percent (using a symbolic number) of everyday kindness and helping that brings to the giver a feeling of meaning, buoyancy, and warmth.

Outside of such conditions, it is likely that generous other-regarding people will gain from giving in any area of life, whether family, friendships, neighborhoods, or beyond (Brown, et al., 2003). The best idea is to try and avoid negative emotions, and stay in a “flow” of kindness over time. Giving is an activity, but it is also a positive emotional state that shields the self from anxiety, hatred, rage, and resentment. We need to keep both positive emotions as states of “being” in mind, rather than merely “doing.” Benevolence is a fundamental affect or orientation of the whole self; at their best, benefi