Profound Joy: Denis Marquet, CBT, and the Spiritual Dimension of Well-being

In brief: Profound joy differs from ephemeral pleasure and circumstantial happiness: it's a state of being that coexists with difficulties rather than depending on them. Denis Marquet, a philosopher and spiritual thinker, aligns on this point with the findings of positive psychology and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Seligman's PERMA model identifies five pillars of lasting well-being: positive emotions, engagement, deep relationships, meaning, and accomplishment. Joy emerges not by pursuing it directly, but by aligning one's life with one's values and living it fully. Four convergent practices cultivate it: radical acceptance of what is, active gratitude, presence in the present moment, and contribution to something greater than oneself. Unlike forced positivism, this joy does not exclude sadness or grief; it moves through them with psychological flexibility. It also opens up an existential dimension that CBT clinically observes without definitively addressing: increased resilience and meaning in those who discover it.

Step 4 — Spirituality. We have journeyed a path: daring to embrace our deepest desires (article 1), encountering others in parenthood (article 2), loving consciously (article 3). One last, most expansive question remains: what makes a life profoundly happy? Denis Marquet answers with a word that transcends psychology: joy. Not pleasure, not performance-driven happiness, not episodic satisfaction. Joy as a state of being that endures beneath circumstances. This quest, spiritual for Marquet, has precise correspondences in contemporary CBT and scientific positive psychology.

Pleasure, Happiness, Joy: Three Different States

Marquet distinguishes three often-confused realities:

Pleasure is a sensation. It arises from the satisfaction of a need (food, sex, comfort). Intense but ephemeral. Neurologically: dopamine, reward circuit. Happiness is an evaluation. “My life is going well.” It depends on circumstances (health, relationships, work). It fluctuates with events. Joy is a state of being. It is not caused by events — it coexists with them. One can be profoundly joyful amidst difficulty, and profoundly sad amidst comfort.

This distinction precisely aligns with Roy Baumeister's scientific work on the difference between hedonism (happiness as pleasure) vs. eudaimonia (deep well-being linked to meaning).

What CBT Says About Joy

Classic CBT long overlooked the notion of joy — it sought to alleviate suffering, not to build flourishing. Three developments have changed this:

Positive Psychology (Seligman)

Martin Seligman, former president of the APA, founded positive psychology in 1998. His PERMA model identifies 5 pillars of profound well-being:

• Positive emotions


• Engagement (absorption in activity, flow)


• Relationships (deep connections)


• Meaning


• Achievement

Profound joy emerges when these 5 pillars are nurtured. It has nothing to do with “trying to be happy” — it has everything to do with aligning one's life with values and living them.

ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy)

Steven Hayes proposes a vision that aligns with Marquet: not seeking joy as an emotion, but living in coherence with one's values. Joy then becomes a by-product of a fully engaged life.

Mindfulness (MBCT)

Jon Kabat-Zinn demonstrated that mindfulness — being present to what is — opens access to a form of joy that does not depend on events. Not a mood, but a quality of presence.

The Marquet / CBT Convergence

Marquet writes that joy is accessible to anyone “who consents to life as it presents itself, including in its difficulties.” This sentence could be signed by an ACT therapist.

The four convergent practices:

1. Radical Acceptance

What is already is. Fighting against reality exhausts without changing anything. Accepting doesn't mean resigning oneself — it means stopping the inner war against what cannot be changed. Inner peace is born from there.

2. Active Gratitude

Recent studies (Emmons, Seligman) show that writing down 3 gratifying things per day for 2 months measurably alters brain circuits. Gratitude is not a moral stance — it's neural training.

3. Presence

The brain spends 47% of its time in past rumination or future anticipation (Killingsworth, Harvard study). In these moments, no joy is possible — only anxiety or regret. Returning to the present, even for 10 conscious breaths, reopens the possibility of joy.

4. Service

Paradox: seeking one's own happiness goes in circles. Contributing to something greater than oneself — children, work, a cause, a relationship — generates the profound satisfaction that Marquet calls joy. This is Seligman's “Meaning” pillar, Frankl's “contribution”.

The Trap of Forced Positivism

Be careful not to confuse Marquet's joy with the “happiness-injunction” of certain New Age spiritualities: smiling in all circumstances, denying the negative, repeating positive affirmations.

Profound joy does not exclude sadness, anger, or grief. It moves through them. A grieving parent can experience moments of authentic joy; these do not betray the sorrow, they coexist with it.

This is exactly what CBT calls psychological flexibility: the ability to welcome the full range of emotions without being overwhelmed by them.

The Spiritual Dimension

Marquet, a philosopher trained in both science and spirituality, posits a thesis that scientific CBT leaves open: profound joy points towards something that transcends us. Call it transcendence, unity, universal consciousness — the word matters less than the experience it denotes.

CBT neither validates nor contradicts this dimension. It simply observes that a significant number of patients going through a profound existential crisis — burnout, grief, illness — report an openness to “something greater” that transforms their relationship with life. Whether called spirituality or expanded consciousness, the clinical effect is real: more resilience, more meaning, less fear.

When to Consult?

For support oriented towards profound joy:

• Feeling of “not feeling anything anymore” (anhedonia)


• Material happiness without inner joy


• Going through a major ordeal (grief, illness, loss of meaning)


• Existential crisis (typically mid-life)


• Desire for support that goes beyond symptom reduction

Series Summary

We have journeyed with Denis Marquet through 4 steps:

| Step | Article | Question | CBT Tool |
|---|---|---|---|
| Person | Dare to Desire Everything | Who am I really? | ACT — values |
| Relational Psyche | Our Children Are Wonders | How to meet the other? | Parental CBT, attachment |
| Psyche → Spirituality | Love Infinitely | What is true love? | Couple therapy, defusion |
| Spirituality | Joy | What is it to be fully alive? | PERMA, MBCT, ACT |

Denis Marquet is not a therapist — he is a philosopher. But his work offers CBT therapists a framework of meaning that science alone does not provide, and it offers readers a path of progression that is not limited to symptom reduction.

If this trajectory resonates with you, therapeutic support can help you experience it concretely — not just read about it.