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Smile or die: The dark side of positive thinking

Messages
3,263
I just discovered this, a very short talk by Barbara Ehernrich about the dangers of too much positive thinking. Not new, but there are lots of themes that are relevant to MECFS and the way we are treated. Its only ten minutes long.


I hear that Coyne references her work a lot (he's also a staunch critic of the positive Psychology movement).

For those of you who don't know the RSA animate series, they're really easy to watch. This guy draws witty images on a white board that illustrate what the speaker is saying.
 

TiredSam

The wise nematode hibernates
Messages
2,677
Location
Germany
Brilliant. I bought the book to read about positive thinking in the medical arena, and was surprised to find she covered many more aspects of it. The economic aspects and the way employees were brainwashed before being fired was one of my favourite chapters. Also the chapter on the rise of superchurches in the last decade (God wants to "prosper" you, just ask him) was an eye-opener.
 
Messages
3,263
Also the chapter on the rise of superchurches in the last decade (God wants to "prosper" you, just ask him) was an eye-opener
Sounds interesting @TiredSam, did you see John Oliver take the p**s our of those churches? very funny!

Lots of bits relevant to us. Like how we are supposed to be able to think our way out of illness by convincing ourselves its not real. And the idea that we're somehow flawed if we're really upset about the crap life has landed on us - and just not ready (or well enough) to punch the sky. And the positive Psyc movement places problems squarely back on the shoulders of those of us who don't have the "right attitude".
 

sarah darwins

Senior Member
Messages
2,508
Location
Cornwall, UK
That’s just brilliant, and very thought-provoking. She’s right: this “mandatory optimism” is everywhere. It made me think of the experience of ‘jobseekers’ in the UK (that rebranding itself is pure mandatory optimism), who are effectively banned from negativity on pain of benefit withdrawal.

And it’s impossible to watch this without thinking of the BPS movement — “you change the physical world with your thoughts”, and the vague allusions to quantum theory as a justification for irrational ‘science’. Their insistence that ill people aren’t ‘really’ ill is itself a vast delusion, a denial of a straightforward reality.

I especially liked her conclusion, though, suggesting that while delusions about your individual capacity to reshape reality are exactly that — delusional — all the same … “We do have power. We have collective power which we could use. It would end a great deal of collective suffering in the world.” Kind of what we’re trying to do here, isn’t it.
 

jimells

Senior Member
Messages
2,009
Location
northern Maine
It always seemed to me that "positive thinking" isn't for the benefit of patients but rather for the benefit of everyone else.

I get the impression that many people never consider that everyone gets sick and die, if they live long enough. This seems strange to me. As a kid I went to a number of funerals, including that of my beloved grandmother. Don't kids go to funerals any more?
 

Invisible Woman

Senior Member
Messages
1,267
Don't kids go to funerals any more?

Yes, but they're for other people!

I agree completely. When many of us were growing up we spent a lot more time with our elders. For example we only had 1 TV so I watched with my parents and we talked about what we'd seen whether it was drama or the news. Many of the books in the house were collectively owned. So someone would comment and you'd end up discussing it. Nowadays, kids don't get that and they are disadvantaged because of it. Basically, you can really only learn about people and emotions and interaction from actual people.
 
Messages
724
Location
Yorkshire, England
It always seemed to me that "positive thinking" isn't for the benefit of patients but rather for the benefit of everyone else.

I get the impression that many people never consider that everyone gets sick and die, if they live long enough. This seems strange to me. As a kid I went to a number of funerals, including that of my beloved grandmother. Don't kids go to funerals any more?

In a society that values positive thinking, and the official philosophy that if you dream big and try hard you will be a success, people are propagandised against thinking about how much luck has to do with things?

I can't say that I was really prepared for the notion that I personally would die until I got very ill with a mystery illness in my early to late 20's. I was aware that other people died, but had not considered that I could die, and especially at such a young age. I was somehow special.

I'm not even sure why I thought this way.

I want to get around to reading 'The Denial of Death' by Ernest Becker, but it includes Freud,and a lot of psycho-analysis so I keep putting it off.
 

JAH

Senior Member
Messages
497
Location
Northern California
For those who can read, you might enjoy this funny and touching book by the late, great David Rakoff, Half Empty.

http://www.amazon.com/Half-Empty-Da...8&qid=1456453359&sr=1-6&keywords=david+rakoff

His theme is the positive power of negative thinking. Cancer got him, ironically because of decades old radiation treatment for an earlier cancer...though I'm sure someone told him his "fighting spirit" would save him.
 

JaimeS

Senior Member
Messages
3,408
Location
Silicon Valley, CA
It always seemed to me that "positive thinking" isn't for the benefit of patients but rather for the benefit of everyone else.

Yup. "Stop bothering us with your problems". But I can sympathize. I don't want to hear about everyone else's problems, either.

However, if hearing about people's medical problems is your job...

I was aware that other people died, but had not considered that I could die, and especially at such a young age. I was somehow special.

I'm not even sure why I thought this way.

Developmental psych. Most teens think dying is for other people.

-J