THE Bolton News and the University of Bolton are carrying out a social experiment to find out what makes people happy.

The first survey of this kind in the UK was carried out in the borough in 1938 as part of the groundbreaking Mass Observation Project. Now, more than 75 years, the people of Bolton are once again being asked to write in about what makes them happy.

The Bolton News is running a series of features on the theme of happiness.

Today we look at sadness because without it there can be no happiness.

HAPPINESS is often perceived as the perfect state to which we all aspire to – so much so that happiness of the nation is now a measure to judge the country by.

Yet part of being human is that sadness is experienced and it is argued it is not necessarily a negative emotion.

Professor Jerome Carson from the University of Bolton psychology department says that emotions perceived as negative could be creative maladies — a characteristic shown in some of the world’s greatest people, including Isaac Newton, Florence Nightingale and Winston Churchill.

Prof Carson said: “Happiness is of course great, but part of the human condition is that we all experience sadness.

“At times this sadness can progress to a full blown depressive illness.

“There is still huge stigma attached to the concept of mental illness. Yet, many of the most famous people in history have had mental health problems.

“Along with retired history teacher Elizabeth Wakely, I looked at the mental health problems of Isaac Newton, Florence Nightingale, Charles Darwin and Winston Churchill.

“We were inspired to look at the mental health problems of these famous people having been influenced by Alastair Campbell and Nigel Jones, who wrote a short paper for the Time to Change Campaign. They had argued that if their famous people had been alive today, their mental health problems would have prevented them from holding public office or obtaining employment, due to the stigma that exists towards the mentally ill. We took an alternative view.

“We suggested, following physician George Pickering (1976), that we might consider their mental illnesses to be creative maladies.”

Findings included that Newton was able to focus all his energies on his research because of his difficulties in getting on with others, which led him to lead an isolated life when he was at Cambridge. He would work for days on end conducting experiments, often not eating.

He experienced a couple of episodes of depression, and a brief psychotic episode.

Prof Carson said: "More recent thinking is that he would have been on the autism spectrum disorder."

He added: "Darwin found socialising too much and avoided scientific gatherings. He consulted most of the most eminent doctors of the time. He probably suffered with a chronic anxiety disorder. He was unable to go to his own daughter’s funeral in Malvern.

"His social isolation meant that he could also focus all his energies on his scientific research, though he was advised not to work for more than five and a half hours a day."

Florence Nightingale was said to experience bouts of depression before going to the Crimea, and even on her return, when bedridden she wrote 200 books, pamphlets and reports on a wide range of topics.

Prof Carson said: "Abraham Lincoln experienced recurrent episodes of major depression. At that time people saw his personal mental battles as showing he had resilience. The early disappointments of the Civil War might have caused weaker politicians to waver, but not Lincoln.

"Winston Churchill’s depression was known as his “black dog”. Surprisingly his coping strategies included bricklaying and painting. He saw himself as almost having a “messianic” role in taking on Hitler. Again his experiences with depression enabled him to cope with the early setbacks of the war.

"Charles Dickens spent part of his childhood working in a factory gluing labels onto bottles of boot polish. His father was imprisoned in a debtor’s prison.

"In his adulthood he became a prolific writer and also produced and acted in plays. He would get up in the middle of the night and walk for miles. His seemingly inexhaustible supply of energy was put down to him having a bipolar disorder."

Prof Carson is now, together with those behind the book Mental Health Recovery Heroes Past and Present, writing a paper on the mental health problems of Charles Dickens.

Dickens actually suffered a major stroke while giving one of his last public readings in Bolton.

Prof Carson said: "Mental health problems can be creative maladies and can also be ways of building up resilience to tackle later hardships in life.

"They are not always a bad thing."