Thank you for this! For too many years, my ear worm has been that old Beck song - Loser. I've had a bazillion people in my life talk about bootstraps and bucking up. Some days I can and others not so much. Telling me I "should" smile, fake it, do it anyway [insert anything]... just isn't always an option and inevitably paralyzes me.
Thank you the heads up about Barbara Ehrenreich's work on this topic. It is now on the list of reading to-dos.
Ooh, thanks for bringing Ehrenreich into this convo! I love her work on this subject. So sad she just passed away. Though I know her work, I didn’t realize her father worked in the self-help industry also! She is my idol.
“In fact, there is no kind of problem or obstacle for which positive thinking or a positive attitude has not been proposed as a cure. Having trouble finding a mate? Nothing is more attractive to potential suitors than a positive attitude, or more repellent than a negative one. Need money? Wealth is one of the principal goals of positive thinking. There are hundreds of self-help books expounding on how positive thinking can "attract" money – a method supposedly so reliable that you are encouraged to begin spending it now. Practical problems such as low wages and unemployment are mentioned only as potential "excuses". The real obstacle lies in your mind.“
AND
“ But others in the cancer care business have begun to speak out against what one has called "the tyranny of positive thinking". When a 2004 study found no survival benefits for optimism among lung cancer patients, its lead author, Penelope Schofield, wrote: "We should question whether it is valuable to encourage optimism if it results in the patient concealing his or her distress in the misguided belief that this will afford survival benefits... If a patient feels generally pessimistic... it is important to acknowledge these feelings as valid and acceptable."
Whether repressed feelings are themselves harmful, as many psychologists claim, I'm not so sure, but without question there is a problem when positive thinking "fails" and the cancer spreads or eludes treatment. Then the patient can only blame herself: she is not being positive enough; possibly it was her negative attitude that brought on the disease in the first place.”
Thank you for this! For too many years, my ear worm has been that old Beck song - Loser. I've had a bazillion people in my life talk about bootstraps and bucking up. Some days I can and others not so much. Telling me I "should" smile, fake it, do it anyway [insert anything]... just isn't always an option and inevitably paralyzes me.
Thank you the heads up about Barbara Ehrenreich's work on this topic. It is now on the list of reading to-dos.
I can’t wait to hear what you think of it🤗
I'm still thinking ... trying to think of an example.
This will be here when you do!
This clip encapsulates it all… https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRQEPMJU/
Ooh, thanks for bringing Ehrenreich into this convo! I love her work on this subject. So sad she just passed away. Though I know her work, I didn’t realize her father worked in the self-help industry also! She is my idol.
Just last week. But this! Amazing:
“In fact, there is no kind of problem or obstacle for which positive thinking or a positive attitude has not been proposed as a cure. Having trouble finding a mate? Nothing is more attractive to potential suitors than a positive attitude, or more repellent than a negative one. Need money? Wealth is one of the principal goals of positive thinking. There are hundreds of self-help books expounding on how positive thinking can "attract" money – a method supposedly so reliable that you are encouraged to begin spending it now. Practical problems such as low wages and unemployment are mentioned only as potential "excuses". The real obstacle lies in your mind.“
AND
“ But others in the cancer care business have begun to speak out against what one has called "the tyranny of positive thinking". When a 2004 study found no survival benefits for optimism among lung cancer patients, its lead author, Penelope Schofield, wrote: "We should question whether it is valuable to encourage optimism if it results in the patient concealing his or her distress in the misguided belief that this will afford survival benefits... If a patient feels generally pessimistic... it is important to acknowledge these feelings as valid and acceptable."
Whether repressed feelings are themselves harmful, as many psychologists claim, I'm not so sure, but without question there is a problem when positive thinking "fails" and the cancer spreads or eludes treatment. Then the patient can only blame herself: she is not being positive enough; possibly it was her negative attitude that brought on the disease in the first place.”