#bright sided

[hexpatient]

If one of the best things you can say about positive thinking is that it articulated an alternative to Calvinism, one of the worst is that it ended up preserving some of Calvinisms more toxic features: a harsh judgementalism, echoing the old religion's condemnations of sin, and an insistence on the constant interior labor of self examination. The American alternative to Calvinism was not to be hedonism, or even just an emphasis on emotional spontanaeity. To the positive thinker, emotions remain suspect, and one's inner life must be subjected to relentless monitoring.

Bright Sided, by Barbara Ehrenreich (italicized by me for emphasis)

[hexpatient]

in bright sided, in the positive psychology chapter, the guy who came up with the equation that makes up happiness only included circumstances as a really low percentage. idr what it was exactly. and i think that really encapsulates a lot of psychiatric thinking. and its not a neutral position either. its not apolitical to say your circumstances only have a minute effect on your happiness, and that resilience or attitude make up the majority of it. i think those were the other 2 things in the equation that stuck out to me and idr the percentages for those either but. its the usual you know? of course there are things i can do to improve my own quality of life, but the political landscape shapes what kind of world i live in and how much effort it would take to do those things. duh.

[hexpatient]

"What gives positive thinking some purchase on mainstream credibility is its claim to be based firmly on science. Why do positive thoughts attract positive outcomes? Because of the law of attraction, which operates as reliably as the law of gravity."

Bright Sided, How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking has Undermined America by Barbara Ehrenreich (italicized by me for emphasis)

[designgraphicruby]

7 Powerful Ways to Stop Self-Defeating Thoughts and Actions

7 Powerful Ways to Stop Self-Defeating Thoughts and Actions

We tend to think that most opposition comes from around us—a complaining spouse, a controlling boss, a road-raging driver—but rarely do we a

[readinginthemidwest]

Barbara Ehrenreich. Bright-Sided: How Positive Thinking is Undermining America. New York: Picador 2009. 

An important, excoriating critique of the confluence of capitalism, hucksterism and a desperate and gullible public. Uberpositive people have always annoyed me, and using that as a jumping off point -something’s not right here- Ehrenreich shows us how ‘positive thinking’ can have diasterous effects, both for the individual and for society. It can also quickly lead to victim blaming and a cruel indifference to the suffering of others (read: they brought that on themselves with their negative attitude/ victim mentality). 

Read: 7/15

[sambonie]

[wavymeech]

I have no idea what the author is talking about in this chapter and the summaries I've been using to help me do this assignment are not helping at all. Has anyone read bright-sided and can help me with Chapter 4?