Only humans “dream things that never were” and “say ‘Why not?’ ” as George Bernard Shaw famously put it. This capacity gives us flying machines and pocket computers. It also gives us rising suicide rates in countries around the globe, from the United States to India to New Zealand.

To be unhappy enough to end it all, a person must first imagine a condition of greater happiness, then lose hope that the greater happiness can be achieved.

Because there is no limit to human imagination, there is never a shortage of greener pastures.

A strong case can be made that modern society does a poor job of preparing 21st-century humans for the inevitable ebb and flow of discontent. Indeed, British therapist and philosopher James Davies has buttressed that case formidably in a scholarly tome titled “The Importance of Suffering.”

Davies argues that we have created a culture that assumes happiness to be the normal, healthy human condition. Deviations from the blissful path — sadness, anxiety, disappointment — are thus treated as illnesses in search of a cure. This “harmful cultural belief that much of our everyday suffering is a damaging encumbrance best swiftly removed” gets in the way of a more robust response, he writes: namely, approaching unpleasant emotions as “potentially productive experiences to be engaged with and learnt from.”

Davies suggests that suffering is a healthy call-to-change and shouldn't be chemically anesthetised or avoided.

The Importance of Suffering offers new ways to think about, and therefore understand suffering. It will appeal to anyone who works with suffering in a professional context.

If you or a loved one feels suicidal, please seek help. The 24-hour suicide prevention number is 800-273-8255. They can’t promise happiness — but they can help you find your strength