The danger of positive thinking

I'm so grateful someone is finally talking about this. This attitude contributes to the attitude of entitlement. Another dark side of the "think positively and your life will be great" culture is the "blame the victim" temptation for anyone whose life isn't perfect.

I have always disliked the expression, "Life is Good" because it is geat for some, good for others and tragic for the destitute and those who suffer in other ways. We minimize the suffering of others with such a shallow statement as "Life is Good".

Thanks -- good theory from Dr, Ehrenreich and on the cutting edge!

listening to part of the show --on one hand, of course phoney positive speak can be inauthentic. but the author seems very black and white, which might be necessary to draw attention to a new book... but i know many cancer surviving patients and none of them have reported that they didn't have people to talk with. there is a grieving process that is known by most therapists that includes being angry initially and expressing these feelings. Suggest you interview Ronnie Kaye, Phd who wrote, "spinning straw into gold" She does counseling for cancer patients, teaches doctors to speak with people who are dying, and never in a million years would tell people not to complain about their situation.
maybe barbara sends out a negative vibe that turns people off and they don't want to listen to her complain? she seems to be condemning an awful lot of people with her black and white statement about support for cancer patients.

THANK YOU Larry for having this guest on your show. She hit a nerve in me - my company is infected with this intolerance for any commentary that is not "positive." I am a lawyer and we are trained to examine every angle of every issue - good or bad -- presented in our cases in order to serve our clients. Yet on corporate matters, anything that is not positive and optimistic is labeled "negative" and is not tolerated. This type of thinking has permeated the corporate model. As your guest stated, the misplaced confidence in the complex debt swapping instruments is a glaring example, but unfortunately the mentality has infected many corporations, not just financial institutions. We are dumbing ourselves into cartoonish yes-speaking puppets who are afraid to voice concerns.

Enjoyed this interview, but there are problems in what she says. Studies have shown, including ones associated with Norman Cousins, that an elevated mood...for example..associated with the viewing of Marx Brothers movies, CAN make a difference in one's health.

Yet, it is also generally understood by most anyone in the psychological community that one undergoing a major debilitating disease typically must undergo a grieving process, much as one must do when confronting death or the loss of a loved one.

I do wish--also--that Ms. Ehrenwright had mentioned the existence of cancer treatment alternatives. One really does...frequently..have options to the "Terrible Triad" of surgery, chemo and radiation therapy. Many years ago, Dr. Otto Warburg (a Nobel Prize winner!) demonstrated that cancer represents a radical shift in cellular metabolism, not the invasion of a foreign agent..which can often be reversed. Do your homework, and also come to realize that medical orthodoxy is frequently "off the beam," in part due to the profit motive. Scandalous, but true.

Larry, you did a disservice to the audience by avoiding to discuss the fundamentalist, evangelistic sales techniques used to dupe the American people to buy into schemes and scams promising limitless wealth. When MultiLevel Marketing hucksters and Wall Street tycoons lobby the govt to change the laws to favor themselves and weaken enforcement of existing laws, we see the People will suffer. These Hucksters/Tycoons/Politicians use these positive-thinking LIES to continue their hold on wealth and power. THAT is the real damage caused by these techniques and this mind-set and THAT is what you should have focused on in this segment - please do better.

Thanks Mr. Mantle! I had not heard of Ms. Ehrenreich until somebody mentioned her book "Nickeled and Dimed" on a retail industry message board. Later, on the same message board, somebody posted a link to a retail consultant/motivational speaker's website with an article about positive thinking in retail, and somebody mentioned her new book "Bright-sided."

http://www.retail-sucks.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=19141#19141

It's no surprise that most of us who work or have worked in retail agree with Ms. Ehrenreich's POV in both of her books since we've experienced first-hand the poverty-level wages and mean customers where no amount of positive thinking will help.

Yes, I agree that sometimes positive thinking will get you out of a bad place, but other times it will create a fantasy world (as is/was the American economy) and think that everything will be okay. It's such a delusion.

Thank you Larry - Barbara Ehrenreich is one of the most insightful writers out there.

One caller (oncologist?) seems to conflate stress reduction with positive thinking. The benefits from, say, meditation during illness may 'raise one's mood' and allow for the body to heal eaiser, but a decrease in depressed mood is not the same as positive thinking (which I agree is totally magical thinking). I knew an old woman diagnosed with cancer at age 80 who was given 6 months to live. She hung on for 6 more years - despite being completely cut off by her entire family because she was such an angry unpleasant person. The hospice staff seemed to all agree - she was just too mean to die.

Following Ellie's comment - Consider how many times people greet others with "Hi, how are you?" When what they really mean is "Hi, I hope you're well because I don't want to hear it."

Am I glad to hear someone finally speaks out the truth. I have been "encouraged" to think postive strongly by my therapist in order to deal with major depression for the past 4 years. "Think and act as if it's true" so I was told by the books. The emphasis on positive thinking was so intense that sometimes I was unable to voice out worries and concerns that really bother me. Otherwise I am viewed as "whiner". I often feel "empty inside" while I was taught to raise my chin high with a flaky smile to face everyday challenges,

I agree with ecorona, there should be disctinctions between emotional regulation (addressing both positive and negative aspects) and thinking everything positively. They are not the same. Ultimately overshoot positive thinking generates fatigue, then transforms into negativity. (can you still give out a genuine smile after posing in front of a camera for 30 seconds?). It's Yin & Yang, negativities are as important as postives. Life is both beautiful and hard. We need to be real about it.

Finally! Thank you Babs for setting the Enlightenment Junkies straight.

Positive thinking= positive spinning

So today at work I was told that when I get my evaluation that I shouldn't take it personally.

It is comments like these that make me want to go ballistic in a stable way.

I was so annoyed by this completely predicatable & robotic comment.

The moral of the story is that I can only view this has a learning experience, blah, blah, blah. Anything other than viewing this as constructive would be NEGATIVE.

Have a bad day!

As the Executive Director of The Wellness Community-West Los Angeles, a non-profit organization that provides free psychosocial support to people affected by cancer, I have a very different take on positive attitude and the impact of being actively involved in support groups.

Every day, we bear witness to the enhanced health outcomes one might have by participating in our diverse programs. We see a reduction in stresss, depression and isolation. People acknowledge increased strength, restored hope and an ability to better communicate with their healthcare team and their loved ones.

No one should ever have to go through a cancer diagnosis alone. The power of 'community' does have a positive impact - it restores hope.

Don't take my word for it ~ come by and see it for yourself.

Ellen Silver, Executive Director

Thank you, Barbara Ehrenreich, and Larry.

As for the comments by the caller who said he works in oncology: being advised to "relax" gives me tons of anxiety.