Why Do We Like to Remember Things that Hurt?

Public Domain: “The Massacre of the Innocents” by François-Joseph Navez

Is there any pain as great as recalling past happiness from present misery? If so, why do we do it? Do we get pleasure from tormenting ourselves about losing something (or someone) we loved? Was Socrates right that living well means learning how to die? Does being comforted too quickly mean we never really cared? And if so, how quick is too quick? Join Eric, Taylor, Dante, Dostoevsky, and William Blake for an unsettling yet strangely consoling meditation on the paradox of grief.