Is Happiness only the Absence of Unhappiness?

…and by that measure, love is the absence of hateful artefacts or experiences, peace is the absence of belligerent acts and associated technologies of violence. Where, though, is self? Can self be negatively defined in quite the same way and, if not, then what is it that is being happy, loving or peaceful but the ontological vacuum and void at the heart of this matrix? Unity, it must be said, in any domain of human thought or behaviour and professional, diplomatic or scholastic endeavour, is conspicuous by its absence and perhaps not so much because it does not exist as that its existence is of a class of entities indistinguishable from non-existence. Some things are their own opposites and our selves are on of these things.