Does Bright-Sided Thinking Undermine America?

Author Barbara Ehrenreich might not exactly be the one her friends call up when they need a sunny shot in the arm.

No offense, of course, but judging from her newest book, it might be an apt presumption. "Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America," takes a long, literary jab at the notion that we should transform negative thoughts and feelings into positive ones. Take a breath, make a "vision board," turn on your Wayne Dyer tapes, and like some kind of industrial strength negative emotion killer spray, poof!, your outlook will be more positive!?

Not so, says Ehrenreich, which will surely come as a surprise to the myriad self-help gurus, tapes and books that have flooded our culture with the promise that our mental health, even our destiny lies in our own heads.

It's an interesting take because looking on the bright side definitely has its merits and place in a society where sometimes the bright side, as obfuscated from view as it can be, is the only thing we've got. However, does that eternal optimism set us up for a collective blame game when as, Ehrenreich points out when writing about her anger over her breast cancer, we find out we can't "think" our way out of something like cancer.

Positive thinking doesn't always yield results, i.e., you might not get the job you meditated (positively) on. You might not beat cancer. Is this the lesson Ehrenreich means to teach?

Ehrenreich's support of negativity isn't right or wrong; it comes down to how you choose to go about your business. If not painting flowers all over bad feelings works for Ehrenreich, more power to her. It's a contrarian view for today's fix-it-fast mentality, and one that's worth considering.

[Via Jezebel]