Posted by Elizabeth

You know you need more stimulation in your life when you return from Michaels incensed that the line didn’t progress in a certain matter.  Then you recount the tale in excruciating detail to your husband when he returns home from work, giving the boring fascinating blow by blow.  Normally one to get passionately swept up in intellectual ideas and debates, the greatest kerfuffle I’ve recently experienced is what I should do with the head of cabbage I received from my CSA.  Clearly, there hasn’t been much worth getting fired up about lately.  And I was so deeply entrenched in checking my Facebook status that I nearly missed Barbara Ehrenreich’s interview on The Daily Show. Author of Nickel and Dimed, her newest book is Bright-Sided:  How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America. From the first words out her mouth, I could tell this was something worthy of getting fired up about (at least, more worthy than demeaning line protocol).

Barbara Ehrenreich on The Daily Show

The primary thesis of Ehrenreich’s book (which, admittedly, I have not yet read) is that America is suffering from a full-blown delusion of positive thinking.  I couldn’t agree – and disagree – more. Like Ehrenreich, I’ve grown weary of the saccharine “you can do it!” attitude that seems to permeate every aspect of modern American life.  We sometimes focus so intently on staying positive that we fail to see the darker aspects of life; and we need both the dark and the light to see the many shades of gray that invariably reflect the complexities of the human experience.  I’ve often found myself in situations where I’ve shared a deeply emotional issue or concern – a problem for which I am seeking not sympathy or encouragement, but simply a kind and quiet heart – and the knee-jerk response of the listener is often some variation of, “Stay positive!”  We have learned, as a culture, to operate from this stance of blind positivism, so as not to really hear what others are saying.  If I have learned anything from my experiences as a counselor, as well as a fellow human being and friend, it is to let someone share something difficult without trying to provide a tidy answer or upbeat aphorism.  Otherwise, we are escaping our responsibilities as listeners of the human experience by rushing through to the other side of the conversation, evading complexity and stepping into our more culturally-comfortable role as speaker.

But within this movement Ehrenreich also lumps in what I believe is a separate topic altogether; that of positive thinking.  She scoffs at the field positive psychology (incidentally, an official division of the American Psychological Association), alluding to it as a “pseudo-science.”  She equates positive thinking to a form of magical thinking, defining it, in her interview, as a belief that “you can control things with your thoughts.”  This seems to be oversimplifying the matter.  Positive thinking in and of itself won’t bring about change, but I’ve always believed in the maxim that, “Luck favors the prepared.”  It’s not enough to sit around and wait for good things to happen; we must continue working and striving and putting forth effort towards our desired goals and directions.  But when positive thinking is coupled with this effort, I’ve personally witnessed the amazing things can happen.  And that isn’t a delusion.

Now that the proverbial blood is pumping, I will do the counselor thing, the thing that, no matter how far I move away from the profession, will always be with me.  Why does this topic get me so worked up?  Why was I was sitting on the edge of my red chenille couch, precariously balancing the computer on my lap, Facebook long forgotten, as I yelled at the television screen?  It’s always difficult to be faced with a situation that calls into question your way of life, your way of thinking, your entire orientation to the world.   I’ve never been a cock-eyed optimist; I’ve always felt a certain amount of angst in my life, and can be as cynical as the next person.  But I rely a great deal on positive thinking.  I rely on hope and optimism, the belief that tomorrow is a new day, that things will get better.  I rely on my effort eventually being met with my positive intention to manifest the life I want to live.  To turn against positive thinking is to turn against hope itself.  Isn’t it possible to adopt a more nuanced understanding of positive thinking, where we can be positive without being saccharine or one-dimensional?  I think we can.

Where do you fall on the continuum of positive thinking?  Do you agree or disagree with Ehrenreich’s ideas?  Can you think of examples when positive thought, coupled with hard work, has manifested something incredible in your life?