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This research analyzes overthinking as a way of experiencing time, focusing on its relationship with happiness.

February 8, 2026Open Access

Overthinking, Psychological Time, and the Phenomenology of Happiness

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This research analyzes overthinking as a way of experiencing time, focusing on its relationship with happiness.
Conducted a phenomenological analysis of overthinking
Examined fear and anxiety as lived experiences
Bracketted psychological explanations
Happiness is not produced by positive overthinking
Happiness arises when consciousness shifts away from psychological time
Fear and anxiety are linked to regret and expectation

Abstract

This paper presents a phenomenological analysis of overthinking as a temporal mode of consciousness. By bracketing psychological and therapeutic explanations, it examines how fear and anxiety arise through lived experience structured by regret and expectation. The study argues that happiness cannot be produced through positive overthinking, but appears only when consciousness is no longer oriented toward psychological time.

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Mayank Singh (Thu,) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6988277b0fc35cd7a8846510 — DOI: https://doi.org/10.17605/osf.io/p2ba8

Overthinking, Psychological Time, and the Phenomenology of Happiness

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