Martin E. P. Seligman, a psychologist and proponent of "positive psychology," observes that lawyers experience depression at rates that are 3.6 times as high as that of other employed people. They also abuse alcohol and illegal drugs at rates above what's seen in non-lawyers. Why is this? In part, he says, the law selects people with a glass-half-empty attitude. His research has found that people who score low on an optimism test do better in law school. "Pessimism," he writes,

To counter unhappiness in law firms — and more...