The South African Civil Society Information Service

Smile or Die

20 Nov 2010

Acclaimed journalist, author and political activist, Barbara Ehrenreich, explores the darker side of positive thinking.

Ehrenreich finds a pattern in many aspects of life that demands mandatory optimism.

Embedded in this is the idea that a person can change the physical world with their thoughts.

According to Ehrenreich, there are two problem with this.

Firstly, it is delusional and delusion is a mistake. She links delusions of positive psychology to the financial meltdown of 2008.

The second problem with it is that its cruel. It is cruel to take people who are having great difficulties in their lives and tell them that its all in their heads and that all they have to do is change their attitudes and things will get better.

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Read more articles tagged with: positive psychology, George Bush, brain, global financial crisis.

You can find this page online at http://sacsis.org.za/site/article/311.19.