Wished there were concrete examples of uberpositive attitude's deleterious effects on life and career success both for private individuals and organisations. Otherwise, God please screen my country from this sect-like malady. ( )

Other title used "Brightsided"

I really enjoyed this book; it has some flaws, the most obvious being the author's weird tendency to comment on the physical attractiveness of the people she interviews, with a clear bias towards the ones she agrees with. But otherwise, she gives a very enlightening account of the weird "positive thinking" mentality that has taken hold in the United States and many of the western nations who always aspire to follow in their footsteps. I found myself recognizing several "positive" techniques from my own workplace/college experience, and was shocked to learn to what a degree they are completely unfounded in fact or empirical evidence.

Naturally, Ehrenreich has somewhat of a "root-of-all-evil" approach to the subject, but that seems to be part of the way books are sold these days. If nothing else, she makes a case against mysticism, supernaturalism and wishful thinking, as well as against the notion that "negative thinking" is neccessarily a bad thing. Where would America be today if the founding fathers had "thought positively" and just wished for a better life under British oppression, instead of rising up against it? Where would my own Germany be if everyone "thought positively" and trusted that that little Nazi problem would just take care of itself? Where would freedom, equality, labor unions, and rule of law be if everyone had always thought that everything bad in their life was just due to their own personal attitude?

As Ehrenreich points out, a key component of "negative thinking" is vigilance. And when you live in the real world and want to survive in it, vigilance is a good thing. ( )

This is a brilliant book. Ehrenreich looks at the horrible things that have been done to our country under the guise of "positive thinking." Corporations push motivational speakers on employees who are stressed out because of too much overtime and not enough benefits. CEOs lose touch with reality because they've bought into the notion that they're rich because they deserve to be rich, and nobody wants to bring them bad news because negatively gets people fired. Preachers of "prosperity gospels" sucker the less affluent into believing they can buy anything they want (and, according to some sources, may even be directly responsible for the housing market's collapse). People can fight cancer and other illnesses if they're just happy enough. It's ridiculous.

The notion of "positive thinking" goes back to Mary Baker Eddy and the founding of the Christian Scientists. White America was founded by gloomy Calvinists, who believed that the financial condition in which people found themselves was predestined. New Thought (Eddy's belief system) was that people did deserve what they got, but that thinking only good things (and carefully moderating one's thoughts) would result in God providing whatever was needed. Added to that was the human tendency toward magical thinking, and the result was modern "positive thinking."

Ehrenreich completely tears down the foundations and gurus of the movements, and I love her for it. I've been meaning to read this book for years, and I'm sorry I waited so long. It's excellent. Fair warning: if you read it, it will piss you off, but that's even more reason to read it. Five VERY well-earned stars. ( )

Another gem from Ehrenreich. ( )