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Loading... Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has…by Barbara Ehrenreich
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. This is a fascinating look at the positive-thinking philosophy in its various forms that has so permeated American culture. Ehrenreich explores the 19th century roots of this cultural trend and examines its pervasive tendrils into the atmosphere around breast cancer treatment, corporate America and the workplace, the newer forms of Christianity (i.e. Joel Osteen), trends in psychology and yes, our economics. She also examines the "science" being used to booster the philosophy and the commercial industry that has grown up to support it. While she is not against the idea of positive-thinking, she makes us aware of its dangers, both culturally and personally, and advocates a healthy skepticism and a 'vigilant realism.' It's a short, thoughtful, 200 pages. (  )1   avaland | Nov 27, 2009 |  Americans believe in the power of positive thinking -- a bit too much if you ask me, or ask Barbara Ehrenreich. The basic tenet of modern positive thinking is that to get what you want, you just have to really want it, and it will "manifest." Just ask anybody who believes in "The Secret" -- the universe is arranged for your personal convenience! And if you doubt this, please get away from me, because your negative energy is damaging! When stated clearly (and Ehrenreich is nothing if not clear), modern positive thinking is just too solipsistic and lazy for mature adults to take seriously...or for Americans to resist. The same kind of vapid boosterism animates the careers of Joel Osteen and the average Wall Street hedge fund manager: it's a belief that if we all clap real hard, Tinkerbell won't die, God will cure your cancer, and the housing market will never crash. subbobmail | Nov 24, 2009 | I enjoyed this book very much. Another title could be The Oppression of Positive Thinking. Bright-Sided has been misinterpreted as a cynical attack on the benefits of optimism. But social critic Ehrenreich’s criticism is not of having a positive approach to confronting one’s problems, but rather an unhealthy, unrealistic insistence on optimism that can cause real harm. (  ) LikeLotsofBooks | Nov 18, 2009 | Given the very interesting topic, I was disappointed that the content was not equally compelling. (  ) writemoves | Nov 14, 2009 | Bright-Sided, with its irresistibly sunny cover, is an almost perfect antidote for those of us who can no longer tolerate panoplies of pink ribbons, Prosperity Gospel preachers, motivational affirmations ...not to mention the “law of attraction.” Barbara Ehrenreich shares her experience as a cancer patient inundated with the culture of positivity and goes on to trace our national obsession with positive thinking back to its “dark roots” in our nation’s overcompensation for its early Calvinist mindset. Ehrenreich has been thorough in her investigation of Positive Psychology, corporate motivational training, prosperous televangelists and the Positive Theology of megachurches. The preachers that she profiles certainly don’t “preach Christ crucified.” She and I would see differently as to the type and extent of the damage wrought by such religion. But I do admire her perceptivity and fairness. A less fair minded author could use the examples cited in the chapter, “God Wants You to Be Rich,” as a jumping off point for a total mockery of all religious thought. The second to last chapter, “How Positive Thinking Destroyed the Economy,” seemed a bit thin in comparison to the preceding chapters, but that may be only because we are still reaping the rewards of a time when fiscal responsibility was steamrollered by happy thoughts and outright disregard for reality. ( )1 ellynv | Nov 11, 2009 | 
 I must confess, I have waited my whole life for someone to write a book like “Bright-Sided”... Now, in Barbara Ehrenreich’s deeply satisfying book, I finally have a moral defense for my apparent scowl. The myth-busting Barbara Ehrenreich takes on the ``cult of cheerfulness'' in her latest book and shortly after diving into the icy plunge pool of Chapter One readers will find themselves asking: Can I really make it all the way through a screed that starts off with a roundhouse punch at the positive thinking of cancer patients? You can. And you should.  [Ehrenreich's] argument has the makings of a tight, incisive essay. And each chapter eventually delivers a succinct reiteration of the central point. But this short book is also padded with cheap shots, easy examples, research recycled from her earlier books and caustic reportorial stalking. Ms. Ehrenreich starts out with her ideas firmly in place, then goes out hunting for crass, benighted individuals whose perniciousness helps her accentuate the negative.  While Ehrenreich is entertaining and instructive as she has been in the past, "Bright-Sided" is probably her least persuasive book. As Ms. Ehrenreich disapprovingly explains, positive thinking has saturated not just American religion but also corporate life and popular culture, and it is rapidly soaking into modern psychology. The problem for her is that people who are insistently reciting inspirational phrases won't hear the siren's wail in time to save themselves. Ms. Ehrenreich cranks her indignation up highest when aiming at the bankers, economists, bureaucrats and business honchos whose near-hallucinatory positive thinking, she believes, has pushed us all to the brink of economic collapse.
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A sharp-witted knockdown of America’s love affair with positive thinking and an urgent call for a new commitment to realism
Americans are a “positive” people—cheerful, optimistic, and upbeat: this is our reputation as well as our self-image. But more than a temperament, being positive, we are told, is the key to success and prosperity.
In this utterly original take on the American frame of mind, Barbara Ehrenreich traces the strange career of our sunny outlook from its origins as a marginal nineteenth-century healing technique to its enshrinement as a dominant, almost mandatory, cultural attitude. Evangelical mega-churches preach the good news that you only have to want something to get it, because God wants to “prosper” you. The medical profession prescribes positive thinking for its presumed health benefits. Academia has made room for new departments of “positive psychology” and the “science of happiness.” Nowhere, though, has bright-siding taken firmer root than within the business community, where, as Ehrenreich shows, the refusal even to consider negative outcomes—like mortgage defaults—contributed directly to the current economic crisis.
With the mythbusting powers for which she is acclaimed, Ehrenreich exposes the downside of America’s penchant for positive thinking: On a personal level, it leads to self-blame and a morbid preoccupation with stamping out “negative” thoughts. On a national level, it’s brought us an era of irrational optimism resulting in disaster. This is Ehrenreich at her provocative best—poking holes in conventional wisdom and faux science, and ending with a call for existential clarity and courage.
(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:06:42 -0400)
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